Pave Your Own Road
by Daemon McRae
Summary: As a new hero takes his place among the Titans, a new threat emerges in Jump City, with some old help. Amidst all the drama and chaos, how will he fit in? Easy, I'm going to mess with them ALL! Rob/Star, BB/Rae, OC/Jinx. Rated M for lang/lemon. COMPLETE!
1. Introduction to Reflex

**Paving Your Own Road**

**Chapter 1**

You know, I never really thought much about the Teen Titans until about a year ago. For most of my life, they were just heroes. People with extraordinary abilities or skills, who felt that they needed or wanted to do something to better the planet and keep it safe. I thought about them much in the same way people think about cops. They're there. They fight for us. Some of them are hot. But they were mostly just background noise, something you hear on the news or see on the streets on occasion.

Lately, I've thought of them more as the most annoying roommates the multiverse could cultivate in it's steaming mass of collective intelligence and imagination. Robin's a freakin' drill sergeant, Starfire reminds me of the world's most un-killably optimistic cheerleader (who can still floor me with a good right hook,) Cyborg makes me feel like I fell into a barrel of stupid and drank my way out. Raven, well, let's just say I play F.E.A.R.... enthusiastically, and she's just a little to Alma-ish for me. Beast boy is one of the only people in this tower I enjoy being in the same room with for more than an hour, just as long as I don't go into his room, or he's not mooning over Terra, (who I seriously think is just messing with him at this point.)

Now, if you're wondering just how an "average, everyday kid" (as so many dropout writers un-eloquently put it) is living with the greatest side-kicks of all time, yeah I said it, who wants some? I won't even put this in parenthesis, bring it. Yeah, ahem, if you're wondering how that happened, then imagine this: You're watching the news one day, and they're covering some horrible international incident in France that has paramedics scrambling and people running everywhere, and you're staring at the screen wanting to help these people so bad it hurts. Then, out of nowhere, you smell blood and dust and rubbing alcohol, and screams and shouts and military orders and news broadcasts are assaulting your ears, and you see a young boy lying in front of you, holding his stomach together with what little strength his tiny hands can spare, begging you in French for god-knows what, but you recognize it as a plea of help, there's just no other thing that tone of voice could be asking for, and a field surgeon is barking at you in broken English to hold his wound together.

I want to say I panicked, or I snapped to attention, or I acted and did something, something valiant, brave, or even cowardly. But I didn't. I stood there. For what seemed like moments, then minutes, then hours. Finally, the surgeon grabbed my hands and forced them onto the child gaping wound, and I took it as an excuse to continue doing nothing, nothing but stay there, and do whatever they tell me. I'm not going to tell you how I got back to America, that's what Prequels are for, but let's just say it happened more than once. And with enough frequency for me to believe, then discover, that I could control it. And more than just a little. If I could see it, I could go there. No, none of that Jumper crap. I can't look at a picture of Italy and go, Oh, that looks nice, let's pop by. It has to be real-time. Actionable. Video feeds, looking right in front of me, reflections, even someone popping a psychic vision into my mind, I can go. And after months on end of reflex training and obstacle courses and military drills, pumping years of experience into days, waking up to training, and fighting my way to bed, our grand old government had pounded my abilities into my brain. Into my subconscious. I was my own brand of Super soldier.

But there was a problem with that. See, for as quickly as the U.S. government tracked me down, recruited me, and trained me, they ran into some legal problems with keeping a 15-year old metahuman as an active service prisoner, and still keeping public morale. I actually have Starfire to partially thank for that. I mean, when an alien princess starts a worldwide petition to prevent a minor from being a military slave, people listen. And they respect it. Especially when the JLA takes an interest. Go supers. So we came to an agreement. I would "serve" with the Teen Titans, and recruit into the JLA when I was 21, under contract by the military. Seeing as how I had shown no signs of, what did they call it, "potential disloyalty to the USA or it's affiliates", they kind of agreed. I keep my copy of the contract framed, hanging above my door. Not on my door, cause they slide into the wall, y'know?

But either way, I became a hero. Briefly trained in military combat, and having had my powers bored into my mind by a stainless-steel drill I like to call training camp, alongside a life-time obsession with Kapueta and Swedish Jumpstyle, I've somehow morphed myself from a random civilian into a teleporting dance-fighting superhero. (I wish I could say it's not as dorky as it sounds, but I've never seen myself on video, but it is kind of cool to be able to kick someone in the face, zap behind them, and kick them in the back of the head in the same move. Yay, flexibility.) My little sister designed my costume for me, it's this sleeveless violet trench coat I dyed, after using it's original black form to cosplay Neo as a joke last Halloween, a black long sleeve shirt, that same shade of purple for steel plated gloves, elbow pads, greaves, and a belt, and to top it off, purple steampunk goggles that took forever to find on EBay. (Yes superheroes use EBay. Especially poor ones. Most of it has black trim, accents, or stripes, or something, just so I'm not one solid color. The last thing I want to hear is, "Look, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's Flamerman!"

I was given the codename Reflex during my (thank-godfully brief) military run, so that's my hero name. Real name is Jhonas. And if you're asking for more than that, have fun, I'm not stupid enough to put myself in danger like that. I may be able to teleport, but I can still get shot. I stand about 6'2, with a long black ponytail and weird sideburn-ish locks of hair that come down in an arch on either side of my face. It looks like somebody tried to use my hair to draw a circle around my head, and lost interest. And my new superhero vestige is currently getting dragged off the couch by a very angry child of Trigon, who is of the opinion that "Do the dishes" means something.

BS, it's BB's turn. I did yesterday. "Why don't you ask the little green lab rat to clean something for once in his life? Or is he to busy reading the dictionary for multi syllable words so that his next love letter for Earthface doesn't come across as a kindergarten assignment?" I'm kinda anti-social when I'm peeved. Yeah, yeah, and Robin wears green Spandex, push off.

"Because he, Terra, and Robin are on assignment in Bludhaven, and you're nearby!" exclaims the Wicked Witch of the South East. Yeah, she hates that one.

"So happy I could be of convenience to you," I growl, my trench coat scraping the ground under me while my captor pulls me into the kitchen. I forfeit this match, mainly because there's nothing on and even less to do, and hum the most annoying song I can think of while I whittle away the amass of dishes from last night's dinner. It's A Small World humming through the air is apparently just enough to get the song caught in the heads of everyone in the vicinity, and appreciatively, I smirk as my victor stomps out of the room, grumbling the lyrics to herself in a vain attempt to rid herself of the accursed Disney scar.

Starfire, however, found the song "absolutely delightful",and instantly barraged me with a million questions as to its lyrics and origin. I hate this Tower.

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Now, if I hate the tower, you can just imagine my loathing and Apathy for the stupid villains we face, right? Wrong. I love villains, especially the stupid ones. Billy Numerous is potentially the greatest army of beatsticks ever devised by genetics. Doctor Light? It's like playing the Three Ninjas, the Home Game. ("Light up the eyes, boys, light up the eyes!") Amazing Mumbo? He's just funny. Jinx? Don't get me started on her. Let's just say denial hurts, but you have to ask, right? And besides, I love her shade of purple. The pink I would change, but not much else. I could go on, and I want to, but right now we're facing the one villain I can't stand more than anything. Ever. I would rather plunge head first into Beast Boy's room on an expedition for evolving life forms, than fight Plasmus. He smells, he tastes bad, he spreads like cheap peanut butter. And he's huge.

And without BB, Brickface, and Robin here, he's also kinda tough. Starbolts, sonic cannons, Raven's spiritual energy, martial arts, (without the gadgets), it's kind of annoying. The big ugly decides I'm a good target right now, and shoots an armful of him at me, ti which I kindly respond by popping in behind him, and kicking the seal off the fire hydrant he's standing in front of. He doesn't like this, and turns to attack me, though God only knows why he would, but is gratefully interrupted by Raven entering his mind with her soul-self, and putting him to sleep.

"Now why can't you do that every time we fight him? It's so easy, just pop in, Sleep Lvl. 9, and pop out?"

The Pale Princess glares at me. "Because if you think it's disgusting being inside his goo, try being inside his mind. It's quite literally always in the gutter."

"Please, friends, can we not be joyous in our victory over the Plasmus?" Starfire mediates, standing between Raven and myself. " I suggest a large quantity of the pizza to ease your troubles."

"Now that sound like a good idea, Star," interjects Cyborg, more than happy to come between me and the Ice Queen. It's widely known that Raven and I don't get along. I like her okay, but she kind of hates me, and well, I just don't respond to that very well. I concede, "Sure, but this time, since we don't have BB, can we please go for the all-meat experience? Just once I'd like to eat something that he doesn't have to remind me he's been once or twice or a thousand times."

"I don't care, as long as we don't waste time and energy ordering. Let's at least decide before we get there," moans Raven. I swear this girl is sponsored by Cure or something.

"Just make sure to save enough for me too," says a familiarly puberty-stained voice behind me. _Please don't be greenbean, please don't be greenbean, please don't be green- _"DAMMIT!" I shout a little to loudly as I turn around to see the other half of our glorious team arrive on the T-Jet. " Uh, I mean, welcome home?" _I hate vegetarian, I hate vegetarian, I hate vegetarian, IhatevegitarianIhatevegi-_

"Be more excited to see us, why don't you?" snaps Terra as she jumps out of her seat, floating around on a boulder above me.

"Oh bite me you brick-wielding Barbie doll," alliteration is my greatest secret weapon. And all of a sudden, the Boy Wonder is inches from my face. "Look, I've put up with just about as much attitude as I can handle. You're part of this team whether you like it or not, so you better start acting the part, or I will recommend you be sent to Military school. I refuse to cater to your attitude, no matter how good you are in the field. If we can't get along, how are we supposed to be able to trust you?"

"That's it. I've had it. I've been putting up with your Holier-than-thou General Jackass personality for half a year, and haven't aid a word about it. I fall in line, rank and file, just like everyone else, I try and keep to myself as much as I can, staying out of the line of fire from you and everyone else. You want to talk about trust? Okay, let's start with Red X, shall I? Or the Tokyo issue? How about your stint as Slade's apprentice? People seem to love you, but does that mean they can trust you? And that's just what I've heard from others. I mean, c'mon, alot of people don't like Batman, but I'll put my life in his hands before yours any day!"

" You do not talk like that to my Robin!" Starfire yells at me, zooming in between both of us. "You have talked the mean words ever since you began working with us! I would rather find myself on the underside of a Zorgian muck beetle than try and have a pleasant conversation with you!"

"I'm surprised you can even have a normal conversation!" I snap. I don't know why, but everything I've bottled up over the last few months is just spewing out like so much verbal refuse, and I can't stop it. I don't want to. It feels like I need this, more than anything. So I keep going. "You've been here for years now and you still can't speak straight English? What the hell?! From what I understand, you have no problems with Japanese, and you only kissed one of them! With as many times as you neck Tweety-Bird the Boy Traitor over there, you'd think you'd learn when to use the word "the" correctly, you interstellar assault on my ears!" And she breaks down and cries, and Cyborg steps up.

"Yo man, what are you doing?! You don't need to treat her like that! I should bust you up for that lip of yours, and that sounds like a good place to start!

Another outlet. "Oh, great, let's solve everything with violence, that fantastic! You'd think with all that hardware replacing your testosterone you'd be less of a bull-headed jock, but I guess they finally found a way to make cybernetic cajones, huh big guy? What, did they take out the part of your brain that lets you think an original thought?!" He just balks at me, and stares. And then she starts in. The Wicked Witch, the Queen of Frost, the Malcontent Mystic. "Just what gives you the right to judge us, and stab at our flaws, you're just as broken as any of us, you PTSD freak show!" It's a testament to her abilities that things haven't started breaking, with her losing her temper. I guess after Trigon, and the babysitting thing, you get better. "We could care less whether or not you're on this team, but as long as you are, we will not take attitude from you, I will not take attitude from you, AND YOU HAVE NO ROOM TO JUDGE US FOR WHO WE ARE!"

"I never asked to be on this team, I never asked to know any of you! A year ago, you were just so much noise on CNN, and now, I can't stand the letter T any more! I never asked to be here, do you hear me, I NEVER ASKED TO BE HERE! I NEVER ASKED TO BE THIS1 I NEVER-" and there it is. All my rantings, and the harshness that I couldn't stop, everything that I just have to let go now, here, with people I barely know, that I didn't even know what they looked like until I was thrown at their door, I say it. And I break. I fall to my knees and cry. "I never asked to be different. all I ever wanted was to help people, not march with a bunch of strangers into battle every day. That boy, I just wanted to help those people. Martial arts, it was just to protect myself, my family, make me feel better about myself, but this? I didn't want this, I wish I had never discovered this ability. I'm not made for this, I'm just..." my rantings are broken apart by sobs and random apologies to these people, these heroes, better persons than I, who just a second ago were berating me and defending each other, now consoling me, because I think they understand.

"I don't even like trench coats," I stammer, just trying to make a joke between sobs.

"It's okay," whispers Raven, picking me up by the arm, "We've all been there, band we can help, you just have to trust us."

"Yeah, dude," pipes up Beast Boy. "Just try to take it out on the bad guys, OK? We're trying to be your friends."

"OK," I agree. "But for now, lets just try and get a pizza without breaking something, deal?"

"Deal," answers a crowd of voices, people I'd like to call my friends. And as we make our way to the pizza parlor, continuing the ever-fated argument of meat-lovers to veggie, I realize I may just have a home here.

My real adventure begins with a breakdown. And if you still want to stick along for the ride, it ends with something wonderful. Just don't touch the hair.


	2. Into the Swing of Things

Chapter 2

You would think that having an emotional breakdown in the middle of a crowded street in front of your roommates would be enough to get them to lay off for a few days, right? Wrong. Except now, instead of physical training and Robin in Commando mode, I'm getting... therapy. (Shudder). Don't ask how it happened, but I went from being the pain-in-the-ass mandatory roommate to the passive-aggressive guy that people think just needs to "let it all out." "It will be good for you, and for all of us, if you talk about it, we are your friends," Starfire says in that I'm-not-a-therapist-but-I-watch-enough-TV-to-know-what-they-sound-like-voice that I swear to the Goddess everyone has programmed into the back of there minds from to much Fox or TNT or Lifetime. And for the hundredth time, I tell her, "I'm fine, I just needed a good cry. I'm good, now let GO OF MY COAT!" I try fruitlessly to pull away from the impossibly strong alien, who now thinks that holding on to my coat isn't enough, and has decided to result to a bear hug. Literally, I think somebody replaced her with a hungry bear that now wants to break me in two and eat me alive. I know very few people that can survive a Tamaranian hug that aren't Tamaranian themselves. "NO, you are not OK, you have much of the sadness in you, and I will squeeze it out of you if necessary!" "O-okay... ju-just let me br-breathe..." I choke on my words as my lungs waive a white flag to the Kodiak therapist. She drops me on the ground, and gives me a moment, just a moment, to recover before she continues, "I have heard that much emotion can be released through 'sharing', so please, begin."

Oh, wonderful, she wants to do circle time now. Planning any possible escape routes out of this little room she drug me into to talk, no windows, automatic door that's coded shut, no video feeds, yeah, I'm stuck. And there's no way I could fight my way out when she can punch a hole in my me. So I talk. For nothing more than an excuse to leave, I talk. I tell her about France, my adventures back, the government training, the psyche sessions with military counselors, my family I haven't seen in half a year, I spend a lot of time on my family. My little sister who made my costume before I was "recruited" by the Titans, my older brother in College, my stay-at-home mom, my workaholic dad, my dog, Shadow, my best friend, Alastor, who, last I heard, had disappeared on a Government-sponsored field trip (thanks to the private school he goes to) touring a lab who's sole purpose was discovering alternate sources of energy, and his cousin, who went with him, that tank of a guy we all nicknamed Powerhouse. I just kept talking. And after what seemed like hours, and multiple questions about EVERYTHING I said, Starfire finally lets me go. And you know how after something really bad happens to you, something that messes with your whole life, after you talk about it, it gets just a little bit better inside? Yeah, that didn't happen. It just got worse. I had finally shut all of this out of my mind, and hid it in a little box behind a curtain of coldness and apathy, when they just had to crowbar my psyche.

So I ask to be excused, and crawl into my room, keeping myself as composed as superhumanly possible, hide under my covers, and sleep for a few hours. I wake up at the ass-crack-of-dawn, not by any outside force, my body just decided to say "I'm awake right now!" and kick me out of dreamland. So I crawl into the living room/command center/kitchen thing, and pour a bowl of cereal. And apparently, I'm not the only one who had this idea, because in my half-awake stupor, I realize that I'm not the only one in the room. I hear the clickity-clack of computer keys pounding away at the main computer, and turn to find, at no surprise of mine, to find Robin going full speed on some city-wide search for God-knows-what. Strolling up behind him, I ask, oh so stupidly, "Do you need any help?" He just turns to me, shakes his head, looks at the monitors... and then turns to me, and looks at the monitors, and looks at me again. Uh-oh.

"Actually, Reflex, you might be just what I needed. See the areas I have on surveillance right now?" He points at a live feed of the Pier, the Pizza Palace, and Wayne Enterprises.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"I need you to scope these areas, just pop in, see what you can find. I've been monitoring these areas frequently, mainly because they've been targets for attack over the last few days, and I don't know why. I've had Cyborg scan these areas on every level he's programmed for, Raven can't detect anything on a psychic or Astral level, and Beast Boy hasn't been able to track anything in any animal form."

"So why do you need me? The best I could do is pop in, take a look, and say, 'nope, nothing wrong here.' I can scan on any level they can't."

"Yes, I know, but I had Cyborg make a new set of goggles for you," he answers, holding up a pair that look exactly like mine. Literally, it's like real life copy-paste kind of similar. "They have an active video feed on all three of these areas, as well as a tap on every security camera, traffic cam, and news cam in the city. So if anything does happen there, motion detectors I've set up at the Pier will go off, giving you a live feed of any activity in that area, and you can jump right in and do some spur-of-the-moment recon."

I just stare at him. "These can do... all of that? Really? I mean, I knew you guys were on the ball about this stuff, but, wow. That's actually, really cool. Yeah, I'd be glad to help. It'll give me something to do for awhile, keep me busy instead of in therapy with everyone and their little green dog."

He just smiles at me. "I figured you could use something to keep your mind off of what's happened to you, and give you a feel for what you can really do. Not just in combat, but full on part of this team. And you can keep those goggles when we're done. It'll give you full teleporting range to anywhere in the city, and Cyborg is working on a transmission attachment that will allow you to hack cameras we don't have taps on. And besides," he adds, "I figure anyone that can survive Tamaranian self-help therapy deserves a break.

I laugh, and he laughs with me. And I start to think, _maybe he's not just a drill sergeant, after all. He's got some friend in him, somewhere. The others sure see it, I guess, I'm the one that needs to try harder._

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After breakfast, Robin and I start training. And not just obstacle courses, but team training. We work on combo moves for hours, sparring, working together, trying to fight in sync (which is really much harder than it looks, syncing one martial art to another.) We were just getting the hang of things, when my new goggles flick a bird's eye view of the Pier int place, and I get a good look at a hooded figure crawling underneath the woodwork. I fiddle with the settings a little, and move to a camera posted underneath the dock, where Mr. Hood crawls underneath a support beam, and stops there for a few minutes. I take his pause as an opportunity to report. "Robin, we have some activity at the Pier. Motion detectors captured movement underneath the carnival arcade, we've got some stereotypical hooded freak camping out under a support beam. Call the others, get BB awake, I'm going to pop in first, and give you a full report.

"OK, but don't engage unless attacked, or on my say-so. We don't want him scared off, we need to know what this guy's planning."

"Roger-dodger," I salute, and focus in on a support beam opposite Mr. Hood. In an instant, the smell of saltwater assaults my face, and I'm hiding behind a large wooden pole across from our mystery whatever-they-are. I take a peek around, and thankfully, he has his back to me. He's fiddling with some kind of box, small and black, made out of a metal I wouldn't recognize. He takes a look to his left and right, and pulls away, leaving the box behind. He slinks up to the top of the Per. "Robin, he's topside. He's left us a package, I'm going to investigate. I suggest catching him as fast as you can, something tells me it's not a Jack-in-the-Box." I pop over to the next beam, and look at this little cube. It has some kind of winding handle on it, and a weird, quiet tune coming from inside. The crank starts turning on it's own, so I pick it up ever so gently, and tap my goggles till I get an active feed of Titans tower. I carry our little present with me, popping to the roof, and then to a more secluded island about half a mile out. "Robin, this things freaking me out. Have Raven transport Cyborg here, I'm not taking this thing anywhere public.

"We're a little busy right now, our mystery man decided to make a break for it. I'll send help when I can, how much time do you think we have?"

I almost responded with"none," but at that moment the crank finished it's cycle, and the box popped open, with a little clown's head popping in and out. The words "Pull Me" were scribed on it's tongue, and I figured I should do what it said. Not very often do I get orders from a bouncing head. "Huh, apparently it is a Jack-in-the-box," I remark half-heartedly. I pull the tongue out, and it's jaw falls out, revealing a long strip of fabric with the message:

_I stand at the end, curious my nature._

_Created, in truth to beg._

_But though I stand taller than my neighbors,_

_I have on me not a leg._

_What am I?_

"What the hell?" I pull out my communicator, and cast on all frequencies, "I need a smart person, now!"

At that moment, I hear a large thud, and turn around to see Cyborg drop onto the ground next to me, with Raven closing her cloak. "Do either of you know what the hell this means?" I point at the little Jack-in-the-Crackbox next to me, and Cyborg instantly starts scanning the thing. "'It's no good, whatever this metal is, I can't scan through it. Raven, anything?"

She stares at the little box, and reads the riddle aloud again, and sits there for a moment. "Well," she says, "I can't tell you what the box is, but the answer is a question mark." And at those words, we all hear a little beep coming from the box, and the next thing I know, there's a blinding light and a lot of pain.

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I wake up to more beeping, and try to freak out, if not for the fact that I don't have enough strength to move. So I settle for opening my eyes. The team standing around me, I ask the ever-standing question, "Where am I? And what the hell happened?" I try and move my arms, but I have no strength to do anything. I look down to make sure I have them, and yes, there they are, with my legs following suit. I shift around a little, just to check to make sure-yep, okay, everything's still attached. Horribly scarred, but still attached.

Robin leans over me, and tells me, "The box was a bomb, voice activated, by a codeword, most likely the answer to the question. Raven and Cyborg were far enough back that she could react and protect them both with a shield, but you were too far forward, too close, for her to reach you in time. Fortunately, on reflex you teleported away, most likely to whatever spot on the horizon you could see past the little bomb, but it went off mid-jump. We haven't had to replace anything, but you got very badly burned. Had it gone off under the pier, it would have taken out the beam it was on and the one next to it, taking down the entire dock. You saved a few hundred people today, Reflex."

I try and shake my head, "But if it was voice activated, wouldn't it have been fine just staying down there for however long?"

Cyborg pulled into view a small circular device, charred on the surface but still intact. "The bomb was set to a secondary timer, if no one had answered, it would have gone off by itself anyway."

"So what does this mean? Who would have set that bomb?" I ask feebly.

"Someone I'd hoped would never have followed us here, but has. Only one person would set a trap like that," Robin said glumly. "The Riddler has come to our city."


	3. Bedside Manner

Chapter 3

I thought I knew pain. I thought after going through the military, getting blown up, and Tamaranian bear hugs, I could withstand anything. But nothing, NOTHING, compares to the mental anguish of having to figure out why anyone in any mind set would ever name themselves the Riddler! "Why doesn't he just call himself Question Mark Man?! It's just as painful to think about, and more fun to say! Aaaaahhhhhh!" My cries of anguish permeate the walls of the infirmary, as if a dying cat had found it's way into my throat and alienated my voice box. That lasted all of thirty seconds. "OK, I'm done."

Beast Boy just stared at me. "Dude, I seriously think your overreacting. It's not that bad. I mean c'mon, Gotham has a Homicidal maniac running around with the name Harley Quinn, and you don't see Batman reaking down.

"I know, I just needed something to bitch about." I had been in this room for a week, Cyborg says I will need about another two days before I can be back on my feet. Raven was able to heal most of the tissue damage, but seeing as how my muscle structure had to reform a little, my body still needed to work up the ability to carry me around. They say I might be able to fight again in another week, maybe two. I think it's bull. I finally find a way to be useful, and now I can't even move. This sucks. SO, I find ways to pass the time. Like complaining. Or making fun of people. Every once in a while I'll just talk to somebody, anybody, that walks in the room. You find out alot about people when you talk to them, and when they think you can't hear them, you learn alot more. But more on that later. For now, I'm playing twenty questions with Beast Boy. And winning.

BB: "Is it bigger than a breadbox.?"

Me: "Yes."

"Is it organic?

"Yes."

"Is it alive?"

"No."

"Is it edible?"

"To some people."

"Can I buy it?"

"From some people."

"Can I sleep on it?"

"Uncomfortably."

"Is it an everyday item?"

"No."

"Is it something I could see walking into a store?"

"Yes." He will never ever get this.

"Is it a palm tree?"

"No."

"Is it a tree?"

"No."

"Is it made of wood?"

"Yes."

"Is it a canoe?"

"No." So very cold. So very, very cold.

"Is it a-" Titans alarm. Very loud, flashing red lights. I hate that thing. Why couldn't it be some sexy female voice saying "We're under attack," or "This place is being robbed?"

At that pint, Robin runs into the room, and reports, "The Hive Five have been spotted robbing a warehouse on Pier 53! Titans, Go!" As BB, Cyborg, who had been working on the other side of the room, doing his damnedest to stay out of the conversation, and Captain Spandex haul ass out of the tower. The only consolation I can give myself is that when Beast Boy gets back, he will still never get it.

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Pier 53, late. Most of this next segment is what little I could piece together from what I was told when the rest of my team returned, some of it is educated guessing, and some parts I threw in just because I want for it to have happened. A good junk I was able to catch myself, through the VidGoggles (Beast Boy's name for them) that Cy made me. It started off with them doing their heroic entry thing, something along the lines of "Titans, Together!" Followed by some fighting, more fighting, some inside jokes, Terra getting trash canned by Jinx (I wish, I really do, but I know it didn't happen.) I watched a good chunk of it, Gyzmo targeting Terra, blowing out rocks from under her feet while she chucked sand and stones at him. Gracefully, I might add, but I would never admit it to her. (I don't like her. More than any other Titan, I don't like Terra.) Kyd Wykkyd and Robin going at it, blow for blow, keeping pace with each other. Starfire blowing the hell out of ten or twenty Billy Numerouses at a time. (Hooray for beatsticks!) Mammoth and Cyborg, Beast Boy and SeeMore. But mostly I watched Raven and Jinx go at it. At this point, I couldn't tell you who I was rooting for. Morally, I was obliged to root for my friend, the hero, Raven, who, as of late, we were actually getting along okay. She taught me to meditate, and I introduced her to the glory that is German and Japanese metal. (Rammstein and Maximum the Hormone kick ass.) But on the other hand, there was Jinx. The hot chick in awesome clothes, the I-do-what-I-want-because-I-can-not-because-daddy-lets-me attitude, that pretty girl that I know I shouldn't like but really, really do. So I sat and watched them go at it, and all of a sudden, the screen goes green. The video feed to my goggles is distorted by green smoke, and I turn them off, and link only to audio.

The audio cuts out after this maniacal laugh pops in, so my VGs are useless for this. I kind of panic, and switch the communicator installed in my visors to Thunder and Lightning. Dudes? You home? Or here? Wherever here is?"

The screen flickers in and out, one of the drawbacks to calling two guys that are the walking definition of electrical interference. "Yes, fellow Titan, what seems to be the issue?" Comes this deep rumbling of Thunder, a decent man, and a good person, but a little to philosophical for my taste. His mug flickers in and out of view.

I was watching the Titans Main fighting the Hive on Pier 53 through video feed, y'know, being bedridden and all, and the A/V cut out for the whole block. I cant get ahold of them. Could you go check in? They shouldn't be far from your location, I'll feed you the last images I have of them." I did a little work with the dials and buttons built into my goggle frames, (more upgrades from Cyborg), and upload the recorded image to the twins.

After they watch the feed, Lightning asks, "Green smoke? Who would use green smoke? It is very curious."

"We've confirmed that The Riddler is active in this area, but to what ends we don't know. I suspect this is his work, please, just go check on my teammates."

"Alright," they agreed in unison. The screen went blank as they blasted off, cutting down their comms. I put in reports to a couple others, mainly Aqualad, who was in town visiting that little fish guy who's name I cannot remember, and Kid Flash, who had set up camp a few cities over, but since the brotherhood of evil had taken him captive thanks to the Hive, hadn't really showed up around here lately. I guess he doesn't want to deal with Jinx after she turned him over to Madame Rouge. He still agreed to show up, but I may have forgotten to tell him who they were facing. A few minutes later, the little ragtag group i had called out for called me back, saying they found the team.

"It's really weird though, right?" said Kid Flash. "You said they were fighting in a warehouse? Dude, we found them all asleep in the middle of the street. There's no warehouse anywhere near this spot, closest is about thirty yards away, and it's clean. There's still some bolts and foundation left but man, that warehouse is gone. We're going to take the team back to the Tower, and let you guys work this out. This is a little to freaky for me."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So he stole an _entire warehouse?"_ I ask Robin, after they've all gathered around my infirmary bed. I've managed to pull myself to a sitting position, which is good, because it means I'm healing faster than "scheduled". "How do you pull that off? I mean, I read a story once where someone encased an entire college campus in Jell-O, but this is something else. How would nobody see it, I reported to the other members almost immediately. He would have had to have off with it the instant the feed cut off."

"Dude, I have no idea," mutters BB. "One minute, I'm pounding Mammoth into the ground with a big ol' Elephant foot, next, I see green smoke, some weird laughter comes out of nowhere, and I wake up here."

"It is most curious," agrees Starfire, "But I believe we would be best off trying to locate this 'Riddler' of whom Robin spoke, and seek him out as out most likely target. He also wears the green, yes? And is he not famous for the... 'parlor tricks'?"  
Robin nods his head. "Star's right, we need to scan the city, call in some backup. Reflex, you and Cy monitor the video feeds for the whole city, see if you can find anything within the last half hour, or anything now, that would point out either The Riddler's, or the Hive's location. We find one, we WILL find the other. Starfire, you and Raven take to the skies, look for anything that isn't there, but should be, or anything that shouldn't be there, but is. very detail helps. We're dealing with a psychotic genius who plays with puzzles. Anything out of the ordinary will help. Terra, you and Beast Boy search underground, look for any abnormalities. I'm taking to the streets with Kid Flash. Thunder and Lightning will meet up with Star and Raven soon, and Aqualad and Tram will take to the waters, they know what to look for. Right now, we need to find that warehouse. It was filled with a large quantity of something called Obsidiant, and from what the labels on those containers read, it doesn't sound good."

I flinch. I flinch hard. Obsidiant. That's a word I thought I would never hear outside a government facility. The rest of the team stares at me. "Do you know what that stuff is?" Cyborg asks me. "I've never heard of it before. And I don't have anything I can scan it with."

"What could a whole bunch of some stupid lava rocks do?" shrugs Beast Boy.

"Not Obsidian. Obsidiant. And you wouldn't be able to scan it, it's not supposed to exist. Outside Military walls, anyway."

"So what is this stuff?" asks Raven. "Nuclear material? Magical ore? Explosives?"

"None of you really know, do you?" I ask. They all shake their heads, so I explain:

"I've been working with the military longer than I've let on. No, I haven't been reporting your activities or anything, but I have been reporting to them. Side missions, shock troops, as much work as they can squeeze out of me, just so I don't have to go back into that hell-hole of a training camp again. I was "active duty for about two months after I got back, and that was half a year ago. But I've been working with them on and off since. One of the missions we were set on put us in the middle of the Sahara for about a week. Remember when I said I was visiting my family? Military lies. I'll never forget that mission. A criminal was holding a nation capital hostage with what he led us to believe was a hydrogen bomb. I wish it had been. There would be nothing to see. There still isn't but you can feel it. If everything in the universe has an opposite, matter to antimatter, flora to fauna, a physical response to the existence of another, than Obsidiant exists to balance the existence of light and heat. Most people think that cold and darkness are merely the absence of light and thermal energy, and for the most part, there right. But someone, somewhere along the way, found that there was more to it. They discovered the substance Obsidiant. The opposite of light particles and rays. That could create what scientists call polar energy, the opposite to thermal. If the stuff the Riddler has is weapons grade, then we're looking at the Sahara all over again."

"What, what happened there?" whispers Raven. I guess I'm being more intense than usual, because they're all paying attention.

"Black. Cold. An entire city trapped in a sphere of never ending darkness. I would rather sit on top of a cronoton detonator than walk through that again. The darkness is the first thing to appear. Light particles are destroyed, and nothing gets in. See, an Obsidiant bomb doesn't just detonate, it sustains. Somehow, it's self-sustaining. The darkness is eternal. You don't see. You can't see. But you can feel. All of the thermal energy in that sphere is slowly drained away. You can't escape, because you can't see where you're going. Some made it out, and recovered, but they were never quite the same. And while you're sitting there, panicked, listening to the screams of your loved ones as the darkness takes them, you freeze. From the inside out, every molecule in your body slows to almost absolute zero. The only thing keeping it above that is the rotation of the earth, the slight movements of your mass in the universe over a slow period of time. Scientists speculate that if an Obsidiant detonator were to be set off in space, they would truly achieve 0 degrees K. And there is no coming back. If the Riddler really has that much Obsidian, the entire West Coast may very well be blanketed in frozen nothingness for the rest of time."

Nobody said anything for a time, then Beast Boy piped up, "Dude, and I thought educational television was bad."


	4. Relief and Reactions

Chapter 4

Days passed. Weeks. We heard nothing. Saw nothing. I watched news broadcasts across the globe for any sign of The Riddler. He wasn't just a joke in a green jumpsuit anymore. He was a real threat with ties to MY past. I doubt he even knows who I am, but he's more than just a villain to me know. He's a bad memory incarnate. And now I'm checking everything, newspapers, CNN, even YouTube for anything that will tell me where this psychopath is lurking. I want to know where he is, what he's doing, and how to stop him. If there was anything, anything that could make me as bad as Robin, as obsessed with my target as he is with Slade, it was this. I remember the everburning cold, the darkness so absolute that I was afraid to look into it. All there stood was a sphere of black. Something so dark and unforgiving that not even the light of stars could penetrate it's shell. It was as if The Adversary himself had deemed this piece of Earth unworthy of acknowledgment by the rest of The Planes. I couldn't let that happen again. even though all I did was bear witness to ground zero, a more than appropriate name, all I got to see was those few who had made their way out of the Sphere, it wouldn't rest. That memory scars me more than anything I've ever seen. When Raven said I was a PTSD freak, she was right, more accurate than she knows. Since that day, I have feared the darkness, the cold. And now, a madman has turned that fear into a weapon that can kill thousands in moments, locking them in eternal night and a frozen wasteland none can see.

But in all that time, we fought other threats, other villains. Noone heard a word about the detonator. No threats were posed, no messages or riddles delivered. One bomb, one warehouse. Nothing else. Even Robin agrees that it isn't normal. "When I first had you monitoring those sites, the Pier, the Pizza Palace, Wayne Enterprises, I assumed they were all connected. For some reason, villains across the city were targeting those locations. Robbery, vandalism, hostages. Even Dr. Light made an attack against the pizza parlor. But nothing else popped up. Sure, the pier was targeted, but that was months ago. The warehouse didn't even fit the pattern. And the Riddler is much more of a showman than this. we would have heard something almost immediately. It's almost enough to make me think that it isn't really him, but reports from Gotham confirm that he's escaped from jail, and the evidence all points to his trail leading strait to this city. We can't doubt this is him, but something makes me think this is much more than another one of his games. He could hold the entire city hostage if he wanted to, but we haven't heard a peep. Someone else has to be pulling the strings. Otherwise, Riddler wouldn't even bother with the Hive as accomplices. He works alone almost exclusively. I've only ever heard of him pairing with others once, maybe twice. The Hive will work for anyone that pays them enough, but they'd normally never go after weapons-grade materials. It doesn't add up."

"I haven't been able to get a psychic lock on any of the Hive, and for as many times as we've fought them, I have their psychic patterns memorized," Raven concurs.

"And I can't find anything with my scanners," adds Cy. "I don't have any was to scan for polar energy. I didn't even know it existed till your little expose a month ago."

"And if Cy can't track it, there's no way any of my animal forms could pin this stuff down," whines Beast Boy. He transforms into a green lab and lays himself out on the couch. "Dude, maybe we should give this up. I mean, we haven't heard anything, why don't we just give it up."

I turn and glare at him. "Not happening. We can't stop looking. I don't care how many villains I have to tear through, how many databases I have to scan. I will not let him use the Obsidiant. For anything." He stares at me, trying to stare me down, but I don't let him. He shrugs it off, and lays down. I go back to work. "Robin, have any of the other Titans reported anything. Any crimes they can't explain, any robberies they can't trace, anything?"

"No. Nothing. If I had any kind of clue, I would have acted. Believe me, the last thing I'm going to do is sit back and let whatever this is unfold of it's own accord. But we don't have anything we can do right now. No clues, no leads, nothing. I suggest we just keep to our jobs, and act when we can."

"You'd think with all of our tech and powers we'd find something, but maybe there's really nothing there. Maybe we should just let it go," Terra suggests,

"No! There has to be something! There has to be-" my words are cut short by Starfire placing her hand on my shoulder. "Maybe it is necessary for you to act on your namesake. You have always reacted, never taken the first strike. If there is anything we can do, maybe it is best to do it after-"

"After what?! After he freezes the city?! After we're all cold and blinded beyond human ability?! How do you expect me to react to being dead?!"

""ENOUGH!" Raven shouts. She pins me to the ground, covering my eyes with psychic energy so I can't see my way out. "We have nothing to act on. Nothing to search for. So we will wait. With every other threat, we have had some kind of lead, some clue, anything we can act on. Looking blindly for something we can't trace is not going to accomplish anything. For now redirect your energy to something that's actually useful."

Useful. That hurt. Everything I've done to track the Riddler, the Hive, the Obsidiant, I was trying to help people. But I've really done nothing. Just stared at blank screens and let my mind wander while my friends fight before me. So I stop and think. "OK. let's play it by ear for now. If we're going to do anything about this, we'll need everything we have when the time comes. I guess you're right. Maybe we just need to act on Reflex this time. I-" am interrupted by the Titan alarm once again. "SEROUSLY! Can we get something else for an alarm?! Just once I'd like to hear some awesomely cute female voice to say 'Hey guys, we're under attack!' or, 'Oh no! The bank is being robbed!'"

They just stare at me. I get no appreciation.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We haul ass to the jewelry store, and lo and behold, my favorite beatstick ever, Billy Numerous, comes walking out the front door with a bag of shinies in each hand. And I mean, EACH hand. The guy's got like, thirty bags on him. "Well peel my suit and call me a banana, look who decided to join the party! Hey Billy, what do you think we should do to them?"

"I'm not sure Billy, maybe we should stuff 'em all in trash cans and roll 'em down a hill, what'd'ya think, Billy?"

"I think we oughta wrap 'em all up in bubble plastic and throw them in a lake!"

"Sorry to disappoint you, Billy Numerous, but you don't get to chose what happens here. The only choice you'll be making tonight is how fast you go to jail!" Quips Robin. "Titans, go!"

It starts like it usually does, Robin pulls out his staff, and knocks a few of them aside. They get up, and split into more. Then Starfire knocks those down with eye bolts. More Billies appear from the dust, just to get taken down with Cy's Sonic cannon. Watching them go at it, observing, sitting back while Terra mows down the line with a stone storm, laughing as Beast Boys mows them down like so many bowling pins in his elephant form, it makes me think. Maybe reacting is the best way for me to fight. On any level. I wouldn't know what to search for, and everything I know about our threat my teammates know. Maybe it's just best to roll with the punches.

And then it's my turn. I stand still while a Billy brigade charges at me, and, just inches from taking a left hook to the jaw, I phase out. And behind the last one in line. He turns to kick me, and I grab his foot, kicking back, and sending him flying into the other group. Pace, wait for it, respond. I never take the initiative in a fight. I don't let myself be predictable. I do the predicting. Three more Billies try to dog pile me, but I see past their crowd, and pop in behind them in midair. Grabbing the highest one by the ankles, I bring him down with me, landing feet first on one, and slamming him into the other. The reflection on Billy's shades reveals a Billy ball flying at me, and I call out to Star and Cy, "Starfire! Cyborg! Cross the beams!" And I MOVE. I teleport my ass out of there, appearing in front of one about to punch out Raven. I grab his fist and swing him at my last location. I hear a quiet "Thanks" from behind me, and in the next instant she's after another group of Billies. I turn back to watch while Star and Cy wait until the clone I threw is right in front of the ball of Billies, and let loose. Sonic cannon meets starbolt with almost pinpoint accuracy, and the explosion takes out almost all of the standing clones. The remaining few are knocked out by Robin and Terra, and with all of them unconscious, they all phase back into the original. He wavers in place, and starts to copy himself again, but Raven's already on it. He locks him in place with dark energy, and nails his ass to the wall.

Finally, I might get some answers. One of the Hive, right in front of me. I start for him, but Raven holds up a hand. "Relax, don't let your emotions get the better of you. Clear your mind, you can ask anything you want now." She stares at me a little, just enough to make me uncomfortable, but turns back to holding Billy Numberous down. I stop for a moment at her words. And walk up to Billy. "So, Numerous. About that warehouse you lifted. Where is it? I understand it's holding weapons-grade Obsidiant in it, right? Where is it hiding? How do you track it? And whose orders are you acting on?"

He looks at me, and laughs. "Bubba, do you really think I would know any of that? Yeah, right! I just do what they pay me. Some clown in green spandex-" I smirk at Robin. I can't help it, it's just to easy. He just glares at me, "-shows up and says he'll pay us a heap o' cash to help him make off with the building. And that Obsidi-stuff? That was just a label. ol' Riddley says the Man's trying to hide the real weapon, under a name nobody knows. Sure, a few higher ups might poke their heads out, but it's all just a hoodwink. I don't know what's really in those barrels, I just know we got paid alot of money to make off with alot of material. Haven't seen 'im since. After the green smoke he set off cleared out, we were all waking up at Hive headquarters. Didn't ask no questions, well, 'cept maybe Gyzmo. But he's always nosing into other people's business."

"Yeah, like yours, you gunk-munching scuzzbrains!" Says a nasally, high pitched techno-booger from somewhere to my left. I get just enough time to glance at the mirrors on the edge of my VGs to port behind me, and then straight up. Billy gets knocked out by Gyzmo's blast and Mammoth comes crashing through the wall. I land on his back, and punch him in the back of his head. He reaches behind to grab me, and tries to throw me off, but in the struggle, I get a good eye view of Gyzmo, and pop out behind him. I grab him by the remote in his hands, and, using it like the handle on a bull whip, I crack him right into Mammoth's side. Then I get blasted into the sky in a flash of pink, and knocked into a wall across the street. BB pulls me to my feet, just in time go get knocked aside by a flying eyeball. I look up just in time to see Kyd Wykkyd dive at me, swinging his cape like a blade. I port behind him, and aim a swift kick at his head. He dodges, and we go at it for awhile. After a few hits in on my part, and a couple cuts in my side and arms, he gets blasted into the same wall I just took a brick nap in by a whole lot of green. I look back into the fight, and see Raven and SeeMore going at it, her blocking his shots, him catching her telekinetic projectiles with those weird eye-bubble things. I pop in behind SeeMore, and catch both arms behind his back, while Raven chucks a dumpster at him. I port in in front of Jinx right before it collides, and hear a satisfying clang of metal meeting cyclops.

"Y'know, Jinxy, if you weren't always trying to be the bad girl, we could really go places. We still can." I can't help flirting with her. On some level I hope to accomplish what Kid Flash set out to do: find the good girl in her that we know is there, but masked behind bad luck and personal injury. Not to mention a bad ass personality problem.

"Oh, I'm not going anywhere, but you're going up in smoke." I waited for it. These guys can't help but use a catchy line right before they hit us, or one of there teammates does. I use my reflective goggles to see Gyzmo pull out a flame thrower, then pop in behind Jinx, and kick her in the way. She gets fried, and Gyzmo gets a kick out of it. Literally. Cyborg's boot to the face will knock anyone for a loop. Especially when they're the size of his foot. Gyzmo lands on Jinx, followed by Wykkyd, Billy, SeeMore, and to add injury to insult, Mammoth comes crashing down like so many pounds of steel.

"I stroll up to the barely conscious Jinx at the bottom of the pile. "Y'know, maybe you are going somewhere with this. How about jail? Jail sound good to you?" I ask, and she just passes out.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Back at the tower, I'm starting to feel a little better about my situation. "So, the real threat isn't Obsidiant?" I ask hopefully. Looking around, it doesn't look like anybody has a straight answer. But they look almost hopeful. "So, if the material isn't Obsidiant, what are they after?" Anybody know of any weapons-grade materials that the docks were storing?"

Robin interjects, "They don't even have gunpowder on their list. Whatever they were storing, it isn't a weapon. Or the components for one. They don't even have that warehouse in their register. I never bothered to look at their records, because we thought we knew what was stolen. But now that we're back to square one, we have a whole new way to look at this. I say, in the morning, we go back to Pier 53 and scope the area. Look for something that shouldn't be there. Because there wasn't supposed to be anything there in the first place. For now, we should rest." He takes a good long look at me. "All of us. Goodnight," he finishes, and walks back to his room, yawning out the door. Beast Boy and Terra walk out the opposite door, talking away. Starfire and Cyborg follow suit, leaving me and Raven in the room. Alone. I am officially uncomfortable. She usually frightens me a little, for more than the obvious reasons, but I've seen how good a friend she can be. Still, it doesn't change the fact that this chick gives me the heebie-jeebies.

I turn around and wave goodnight, and she stops me for a moment. "You know, for someone prone to breakdowns, freak out, and emotional tirades, you make a decent fighter. It's not that often I see someone walk through the steps of battle so smoothly. It's almost as if you know you're gong to win, as if your only concern is how that will happen. It's not the most advisable way to fight, but I have to say, it's not terrible." She waves goodnight and turns around.

"Y'know, if you're going to backhand a compliment, you could at least leave the gloves on."


	5. Supply and Demand

Chapter 5

Waking up the next day, I start thinking about what would be the best way to approach our target with this new information. Apparently Obsidiant isn't the real threat, so I can relax a little. Not much, because we're still dealing with a glow-in-the-dark psychopath who leaves bombs triggered by the words "Question Mark," but enough to where I'm not becoming an OCD Riddler hunter. I'm not going to let him become my Slade. So I sit down with the rest of my team, a nice big group meeting about how to track this guy. Raven and Terra are of the impression that we should put someone underground. Make one of our heroes a villain for awhile, hoping the Riddler will approach them like he did the Hive. Cyborg and Raven want to go do a full-on investigation of the grounds the warehouse used to be at, to see if there was anything we missed, or if anything has shown up there since then. Starfire and Beast Boy are voting that we wait for him to make the first move, like we did with the bomb. Now that we know who we're dealing with, we can take the proper precautions. At least, that's there standpoint. And little old me gets to vote on this. At least, I would, if my teammates would shut up long enough for me to make a decision, let alone hear what it is.

"Robin, I'm not going to let you or anyone on this team go undercover as a villain again!" argued Raven. "Do I need to remind you of the issues we had when Cyborg joined the Hive? And you and Terra should be the last people to suggest this! You two both know what it's like being on the other side of the equation! How can you suggest that we force someone on our team to walk on the opposite side of the law?!"

"It's better than sitting around doing nothing!" Robin takes the opportunity to point the blame at someone else. Namely Beast Boy. "How can you expect us to sit here inactively while a madman runs around with god knows what? We have no idea what he's planning, for all we know, sitting on our hands would give him just the opportunity he needs to hold the city hostage, or just destroy it."

Cyborg interjects, "Which is exactly why we need to rescan Pier 53! We need to find some more evidence so that we can actually go after this guy! The Riddler's gotta have left some kind of trail. We need to follow it!"

"And what?" Terra asks, "track down a bunch of months old clues while we walk right into a trap he's had all this time to set up? Now way! We need to be able to get him one-on-one! From what Robin's said, there's no way this guy can fight back against us, he's just a mad scientist!"

"Dude! Remember the last 'mad scientist' we fought? Dr. Chang?! He had a bunch of goons! Every guy we've ever fought has always had some kind of army! And I'm not gonna let this walking photo negative of a candy cane turn one of us into one of his soldiers!"

I raise my hand. They don't notice. I smack the table a couple of times. Nothing. S I tune my VGs to my room, pop in, grab my megaphone, walk back to the main room, with it clipped to the back of my belt. I approach the table from behind, the only one who notices is the only one not yelling, Starfire, and I hold my finger to my lips, and cover my ears briefly, and she gets the signal. She claps her hands over her ears, which, again, they don't notice. I pull out the megaphone, quietly adjust the settings to a much more receptive volume, 12 (out of 12) should do it. I point it at the back of Robin's head, and...

"ATTENTION, YOU RAMEN-RAIDING RADIANS! YOU STUPID HECTOPASCALS NEED TO PULL YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR VECTORS AND PAY ATTENTION, CAUSE IT AIN'T CHEAP!"

They do not appreciate this. I have never been glared at so hard in my life. But they are being quiet now, and paying attention to me. Which is all that matters. "Has it occurred to you guys that we have the resources for all three?" Glare downgrades to staring. "I mean, c'mon. We have like a small army of superkids to go around. We can set up teams to track him, a team to scope the warehouse, hell, I KNOW we can set up a team to sit on their ass and wait for it. Led by Beast Boy."

"Yeah! Hey, wait. Dude!" He glares at me again. Why is that the only angry expression these people know?

"And besides, if you want to send someone underground, send someone who's not a hero."

Raven asks, "And I'm afraid to ask, who do you have in mind?"

I just grin at them. "Let's just say I heard from a couple of old friends a couple of weeks ago, that would love to mess with the Hive."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yes, now it's my turn. My name is Siphon, and I am proud to say that I am a smart-ass! I've been a friend, (and a headache) to who is now known as Reflex, for the last few years. It took me awhile to get ahold of him after he dropped off the radar, of course, it helps that I also spent some time in hospitals recovering from the explosion at the lab the GOVERNMENT paid for me to take a field trip in. So the GOVERNMENT gets to pay my hospital bills. Of course, it also helps that the lab was researching alternate forms of energy, and the explosion irradiated me with every possible energy type they had access to that wasn't actually radioactive. And I discovered something: THEY GAVE ME SUPERPOWERS! I was so happy when I found this out that I swear I could cry. Thanks to your tax dollars at work, I can now absorb and emit any energy type I want. Of course, there are rules and limits to it. Like, I can't absorb electricity and emit heat energy from that electrical surge. Yeah, I can absorb electrical energy, but it stays electrical energy. And heat energy is really hard to absorb, because I have to stay in constant contact with whatever I'm absorbing, and tops and fires _hurt._ But electricity is so easy. I just have to touch something that has an electric current _in it, _and _fwoomph, _mine. My cousin, who we've nicknamed Powerhouse, even before the accident, is now literally that: a walking engine of infinite energy. That I can sponge off of!

But anyway, I decided not to let our grand ol' US of A know that I have superpowers, but Siphon does. So I put together a costume with Reflex's little sister's help. Her name is Dana, and she's a freaking genius with needle, thread, and metal plating. She's 13 years old and designs body armor and superhero outfits. And makes them. Something is off about this child, but she's still pretty damn cool. The outfit we designed together is at base, a black jumpsuit with silver streaks up the arms and legs, and down my back. Over that, we've put metal bracers on each arm that extend over the back of my hand, but still leave my palms free for my powers, metal boots, a silver bandolier over each shoulder that has been sown into the suit, and locked together to form an X over my chest,, and a silver belt that locks both bandoliers at the bottom, so it looks kind of like this: X, except the X and the underline are . For a mask, I have a bandana that falls over my eyes with little slits.

Powerhouse, on the other hand, is going very simple. He's just going with a leather biker jacket, a black t-shirt, and a large metal chain over one shoulder. Black jeans and combat boots top it off, and his mask is just a biker helmet. A bad-ass looking biker helmet, but a Biker helmet. It doesn't have a visor, so you can actually see his face, but apparently it covers just enough that you can't tell who it is. Hah! Take that, glasses and a lock of hair!

But anyway, after almost a year, I finally found Reflex. I gave him a call last week, just to check in, make sure it was really him, and we talked for a few hours. Then, yesterday, he calls me, and asks, "How would you like to be able to jack with the Hive on a daily basis?" That caught my interest. "Go on," I said.

"We need someone to infiltrate the Hive, try and find out what connection they have, if any, to the Riddler. I figured it would be a good field test of your abilities, and you'd already told me you weren't going straight hero, so there's not much of a morality issue there, now is there? Anyway, come by the tower, I want to work out the details in person. Oh, and see if you can get Powerhouse to come with, too. He needs the experience, and we have a bit of a 'master plan' for this. It was my idea."

"That doesn't instil a great deal of confidence in me."

"Raven fine tuned it."

"That's better. I'm in."

"By the way, Alastor?"

"Yes?"

"You're an ass."

"That's smart-ass to you. Mr. Smart-ass."

CLICK.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"He'll be coming by tomorrow, and we'll work on the details of Operation: Moral Compass later," I report to our happy leader.

"Please stop calling it that," Robin moans. He's still not entirely sure whether or not he can trust someone he hasn't met, that doesn't really have a problem working WITH the bad guys. But he's the only guy we could think of with the powers needed to get in, and the personality needed to stay there. Powerhouse is good for it, too, but he's nowhere near as clever as Siphon. We used to make the joke all the time that if Powerhouse ever did get powers, we'd just call him Superjock.

We pound out a few more details of the plan, and head for the warehouse site. Cyborg and Raven scan the area, Terra checks the tectonics in the area, and Beast boy sniffs it out. Robin goes CSI on us, and pulls out a crime scene kit, but if he expects to find anything here after two months, I don't know what. Starfire is interviewing the dock workers to see if they remember anything, but noone remembers the warehouse being here, but some of them vaguely recall a Hive attack, so we know we're not crazy. But noone remembers the Riddler showing up. Again, a couple workers remember green smoke, but that's about as much as we can get out of it.

I decide to make myself useful, and hack the video feeds from the surrounding warehouses. I find one camera that overlooks our giant blank spot. After a couple of days being offline two months ago, nothing else really happens, people come and go, but none really stops. I fast forward through the tapes for the last couple of months, accessing the dock's security mainframe instead of the camera itself. Normally, I would have no idea how to do any of this, but Cy programmed my VGs in such a way that all I have to do is hit a couple buttons, and a pseudAi does the hacking for me. Every once in a while I get concerned about the pseudo-AI becoming a full fledged , and start messing with me, but so far, so good. Everything on the cameras is good, until a tape from a week ago catches my eye. I stop and play it back to make sure of what I'm seeing, some guy in a cloak walking up to where the building _used_ to be, pulling out something that I can't see from this camera angle. He waves it around for awhile, and leaves. I point this out to Cy, who plays the image again through his arm.

"What the hell could he be doing?" Robin asks no one in particular.

"I didn't pick up anything on my sensors, what about you?" he asks Beast Boy. "Dude, there is nothing there, I didn't smell anything."

"And there's no psychic trace anywhere here. Whatever he did, he didn't leave any traces. I'm, to forgive the pun, completely in the dark on this one."

Wait a minute. Dark? And this guy's favorite color is-

"I hate this guy!" I walk up to the dock's main office, and talk to the superintendent. He just says, "OK," and I go back to the Titans. "Cyborg, shine that shoulder light of yours over the entire area that warehouse used to cover. Highest intensity you can. He just stares at me, "Trust me on this." He just shrugs and follows my instructions. Then he waits for a cue from me. "Yeah, cut it." I signal to the superintendent, "OK, turn 'em off!"

"What?" Terra asks me.

"I told him to cut all the lights in this area when I gave the signal. If I'm right..." the lights go out. And where there used to be just ground, there is now a great big glow-in-the-dark riddle.

Beast Boy just shakes his head. "This guy is so annoying."

_Round and round the wheel I go,_

_I'll give you one, it was quite a show._

I turn and look at the rest of the group. "Anyone? Got anything? Ever?" They just shake their heads. I sigh, "We're going to be here all night."


	6. Rantings in the Dark

Chapter 6

Freaking riddles. I'm so tired of this crap already that I'm wanting to cry inside. Little emo tears of surrender, as my inner child hides in a corner and listens to Cure albums. _I'll give you one, it was quite a show?_ What in the name of all that is good and tasty is this guy on? Seriously, it's like fighting a cereal box! I want out! That's it. I'm going home, crawling in bed, and reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance till it makes sense. Anything is better than this.

"You've said this. Multiple times. Now STOP TALKING so I can think'" Raven barks at me. Apparently I'm thinking out loud.

"Yes, you are," says Beast Boy. "And it's annoying."

Stop that. Oh, wait a minute. "Stop that."

"Does anybody have any idea what this is? And how long do we have to solve it before we all blow up?" asks Cy.

"About five minutes after you quit asking me that!" answers Robin. "No, I don't know what this is, and I don't know the answer! It's going to take some time to decipher, so if you can be quiet for a minute and help me think, we might get through this okay."

Beast boy and Terra run up to Cy, who's now scanning the glow-in-the-dark riddle. "Need a hand?" says Beast Boy. And just like that, the ground we're all standing on, where the warehouse used to be, opens up into a pitch black pit, and we all fall straight in. It's so dark I can't see my way to teleport out, and before any of the girls can fly out, or Robin and Cy could get a grappling hook to the surface, the door closes again. I glare in the general direction I think BB fell. "Has anyone ever told you that they hated you? Because I think more people should." I stand up, and try and turn on the lights in my goggles, but they won't click on. I hear Robin cursing under his breath, smacking a flashlight. And almost no sound from Cyborg. Then I hear a thunk, a very effeminate "Ow!" and a large CLANG!

"I think I have run into a wall of some kind made of very heavy metal. And I think I knocked it down," says Starfire.

"No, no, that would be me," says Cyborg. From the ground.

"Dude, what happened?" says BB.

"Something in this room is cutting of my circuits, but my life support systems are all fine. I just can't move. Or do anything but lay here and be alive."

"Um, how would they be able to do that without killing you?" asks Terra. "Aren't you..."

"Dependent on my cybernetics? Yeah. But I have enough organics in me for base function, and not all of my circuits are fried. Plus, I have more than one set of life support systems in this body, in case something like this happens."

"So, where are we?" asks Raven.

"Girl, if I knew, I wouldn't be here anymore," I volunteer an answer. "Soon as we get out, I'm popping to Maui for a few weeks. This crap is getting annoying. First, months without any clues, and then we get one really big one, that turns out to be a trap? That's freaking awesome." I walk around for awhile, feel my way along what feels like a concrete wall, without any cracks or crevices or jack-shit for detail. I run into people a couple of times. We spend about a half hour in this room, Cy tries to blast the ceiling open, the beam emits just enough light for us to see it bounce back and hit him in the face. Star gives us a bit of light, but the room is big enough that it doesn't make a difference for the most part. I try to find a nice corner to sit in, running into teammates and wall along the way, when I find a section of wall that doesn't have wall. Oh, a hole. Big... enough... for... people. "I FOUND THE DOOR!"

I get punched in the back of the head by Captain Puberty the Toy Wonder. "We're all right here! Don't scream."

"Roger-dodger."

"And stop saying that."

"Roger-dodger." I can practically hear him seething. The rest of the group crowds around us, and Starfire holds up another starbolt, so we can actually all see each other. Robin has a look of almost utmost contempt, and Cyborg, having rebooted enough to walk around, is laughing behind his back, with Beast Boy and Terra. "Hey, Cy, if you weren't able to move earlier, how'd you use the sonic cannon?"

"Remember when I said I have multiple life support systems? Well, when my primary system shut down, almost all of them kicked on a little later, letting me move and use the rest of my functions. Starfire just happened to run into me while they were still on the loading phase."

"Yay, life support!" I jump up and shout. Then get weird looks from everyone. "Sorry, I get a little stir crazy in dark places. Part of my phobia. It took me awhile to get past freaking out and shutting down on reflex, now I just get really jumpy and irrational. It's kinda fun. Plus I needed that."

"Ok... just don't do that again," says Beast Boy. The rest nod in agreement.

"You people are no fun. You need to watch more anime."

Terra just grimaces at me. "No, no we don't."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So we've been walking down this freaking tunnel for like, ever, when we finally come across a big cavern lit with torches, ending in a big steel door. I mean, like, final-boss-point-of-no-return big. "This guy sure has a flair for the theatrical, doesn't he?" asks Beast Boy.

"More like he's played too many Dragon Quest games. I'm surprised there isn't a riddle carved into the damn thing. Or a save point or treasure chest nearby. Anybody see a weapon's shop on the way down here? I'm still in my starting gear," I rant. Just keep talking, I tell myself. The torches don't provide very much relief from the cold, dark hallway of nasty-not-niceness. So I just find more excuses to talk, take my mind off things. "So, when do we leave?" I turn and ask Robin.

"As soon as we open this door," he says. He runs a hand along the solid metal. No distinct mark, no carvings, just flat iron, at least I think it's iron. He gives it a few pounds, and the right door slides open. Great, they're electronic. Which means they're not some ancient evil being held in place by wards and chains. I feel SO relaxed now.

"Well, that was easy, let's just get out of here and go to sleep for like, a week, ok?" I ask, and move for the door. Raven grabs my collar.

"Oh, no you don't, Reflex. The last time you spearheaded an operation involving this guy, the infamous Jack-in-the-boombox incident, you nearly killed yourself. You're not getting off that easy. Stay here," orders Raven. And as much of a coward as I am right now, I just stay put like a good little puppy.

Terra puts a hand to the ground and stays still for a little while, then reports, "There's no abnormalities in the ground ahead as far as I can tell, but scared-for-shitbrains back there may have a point. The only way we're going to know is if we go forward."

I just give Raven a look. "Did you really have to restore her memory?" I whisper. She just shrugs and forges ahead with the rest of the group. I follow suit, because there is no way in hell I'm staying by myself in this place. We keep walking for awhile, and eventually come across a huge underground river flowing through an even larger cavern, leading out to the ocean. And I can nearly cry. "FREEDOM! YAY!"

And that's when the Hive Five attack us. Again. "BEATSTICKS, YAY!"

Beast boy just glares at me. "Stop that."

"No," I retort, and grab him by the collar, tossing him headlong into Gyzmo. He has the common sense to turn into a rhino on the way there, and plows straight through the bugger. Into the river he goes. Raven telekinetically grabs Mammoth by the ankles, and heaves him into the river. Starfire just blasts away at SeeMore, then blows the rock out from under him dropping him in the water too. I take my time popping in and out of the growing crowd of Billys, clocking some in the head to knock them out, then throwing those overboard, and letting the rest do my work for me, as they try to attack me, and end up hitting each other. Robin and Kyd Wykkyd are pretty evenly matched, until Cy blasts him into a stalagmite, and chucks him in with the rest. Terra's been having some trouble with Jinx, and vice versa, cause if one of them uses too much power, we're all doomed. So I take the direct approach, and pop in front of Jinx.

"Hi, how you doin'? Good? Let me fix that for you." I give her a quick kiss before she can respond, as much to piss her off as for instant gratification, then I punch her in the stomach, knocking her out cold. Deciding to add insult to injury, I slip a little piece of paper into her shoe that I set up before we left the tower, and throw her in last.

"Did you really have to kiss the bad guy?" Beast Boy asks me. "I mean, seriously, now she's gonna kill you."

"Nah, she won't kill me for that. The note I slipped in her boot might do it, though," I smirk.

"Is it just me, or was that way too easy?" asks Raven.

Then I hear Gyzmo yell from downstream, "You gunk-munchers are toast! We're telling the headmaster about this!"

I give Raven another look. "You just had to ask, didn't you?"

We make our way out of the damn cavern, only to find ourselves on the opposite side of the bay from our tower.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Back at the tower, Robin reviews our situation. "So, we can safely assume that the hole is how they got the warehouse out of there so quickly, and with a direct route to the river, they could have moved it very easily And having all those months of us not prying into the docks, which is exactly what he wanted, he could have moved the entire warehouse piece by piece."

"Which is probably what the Riddler did," adds Raven. "Most likely that riddle wasn't a clue, but a reminder for what the pass code was. And if it was that short, he could have said it at any time before we woke up outside the building, and we wouldn't have known any better."

"The biggest question is, why would he need to move the entire warehouse? He could just as easily have built the trapdoor under the floor, and moved the contents themselves," Robin's thinking out loud again. And they say I'm annoying.

"You are," responds Terra.

Oh, stop that, I tell myself. Then chip in my two cents. "What if the warehouse itself had some importance. You said he probably moved it piece by piece. How would you do that to a building, unless..."

Starfire figures it out. "Unless it already came in pieces. Which means he wasn't moving a warehouse, it was a machine."

"Or some kind of device," added Cyborg. "I did a trace analysis in the water and the caverns for leftover materials. I found some core materials used in thermal environment manipulation devices."

"In English, please?" begs Beast Boy.

"It keeps your hot villain hot, and your cold villain cold," I answer for him.

Terra gives me a smirk. "I'm guessing Jinx would be your hot villain kept hot, right?"

"Careful, you talk to much and some of the rocks in your head might fall out.," I grin at her. _Jordan lays back, swoosh._

Beast Boy stops me and asks, "Dude, what was on that paper you slipped in Jinx's costume?"

I think for a moment, then laugh remembering what I wrote. The others look at me and I answer, still chuckling, "Call me."

Raven just sighs at me. "You really need to get out more."

At that point an old friend of mine comes into view on the main screen. "Siphon! Dude, how you been?" I jump up and ask him.

"Not bad. We've got the entirety of Operation: Moral Compass laid out, but we don't have any written copies. It's just safer that way," he explains. Robin flinches at the title for our master plan.

I just grin at my old friend. "You really are a smart-ass, aren't you?"

"I try." We spend an hour or so working out the details between both sides, eventually getting everything concrete, and Cyborg programs a written version into his hardware. We discuss some varieties of the escape plan, but Siphon just shrugs them off. "I've already got it figured. They'll hate it."

I just laugh at him. "You're horrible."

"Again, I try. Later." And he cuts out. In his place is the sunrise, and it hits us how tired all of us actually are. "Alright, y'all," yawns Cyborg. "Sunrise, time for bed."

"Truer words were never spoken," I concur, and make for the door.

"I can think of some," says Terra. "Reflex loves Ji-inx, Reflex loves Ji-inx," she says in that stupid sing-song voice used by little kids and Gyzmo.

"This coming from the only girl in the world who can accurately use the phrase 'getting my rocks off' in self-context, without surgery." She gives me a look of sheer loathing.

"Girl, I grew up with Siphon You're gonna have to catch me on much less sleep if you want to mess with me and get away with it. G'night."


	7. Intro to SIphon

Chapter 7 (Siphon)

You'd think they'd make it a little harder to penetrate an evil organization like the Hive Academy. They've got over a hundred super-powered teenagers with raging hormones that are being encouraged to do evil, a small army of armed guards, an evil headmaster, and their base is a giant deathtrap, to keep the students on their toes. I was expecting at least a little bit of difficulty infiltrating the academy, more than just a couple of robberies and an entrance exam, but no, that's all I got. I just blasted the windows out of a few high-profile jewelry stores (at night, to avoid hurting people), lifted a few computers, you know, petty crimes. Then I was approached by a strange group of teens that said they represented the Hive Academy, and that there headmaster had expressed an interest in me. Some weird chick with pink hair name Jinx, that I'd heard about from Reflex, a scrawny little booger covered football with a tricked out backpack called Gyzmo, some steroid freak named Mammoth, Kyd Wykkyd, SeeMore (who is just a joke to me, I can see how he's slightly useful, but he looks retarded,) and the most annoying hillbilly in the world, Billy Numerous. I'm just finishing up robbing the electronics store when they pop out in the street in front of me.

"So, Siphon, is it?" asks the Pepto-Abyssmol pink haired one, "You think you can just waltz into town, blast away a few windows, without the Titans showing up, and walk off with OUR loot? You got a lotta nerve. Hive Five, eat him alive!" She shouts, and points a finger at me, not giving me a chance to retort. Criminals these days, they just don't respect the tradition of witty banter. The rest of her group take that as an excuse to charge at me. I expected something like this, and drain all of the juice out of the batteries I ripped off, and blast a bolt of lightning down the middle of the road, knocking SeeMore and Kyd Wykkyd aside. I jump out of the way as Mammoth comes down on me, and Gyzmo follows up with laser blasts from that stupid tech pack. I catch more than half of them, and use the energy from those to blast the rest out of the sky, them aim the excess at Mammoth, who came in for another charge. He goes flying into Gyzmo, and lands on top of the munchkin, out cold. Then a blinding pain strikes me in the back of the head, just below my neck, so it doesn't knock me out, but it flings me forward. I land next to a lamp post, and take it as an opportunity to recharge. Thank you, unending hours of Infamous. Jinx walks up to me, and gets ready to blow me away with one of those tripped out pink spells, and I just zap her straight on. With a little more juice in me, I recover more quickly, and take the opportunity to get the first hit in on Billy Numerous, who decided to take his turn. He starts creating a huge line of himself, so I pour as much electricity into the middle one as I can, which spreads out to the rest of them, who aren't fully separated yet. I hear a faint footstep behind me, and dive to my left, just in time to avoid another hit from Kyd Wykkyd. I grab two of the battery packs I dropped that didn't get drained, Absorb one, and throw the other one right in front of me, where that teleporting freak makes his next appearance, and blast it, blowing it up in his face. That just leaves SeeMore.

He walks up to me, holding both his hands up, but I go into a defensive stance just in case he tries something. He pulls out a little black hexagon-shaped tablet, presses a small button on one part, and says, "The headmaster told me to bring this to you, if you won." A small hologram projection of a hooded man fades in, standing on top of his little projector platform.

"Siphon, I've heard so much about you. I had a few questions I want to ask, so if you have the time, please, let's talk. And don't worry, this projection is live, so I CAN hear you. First, I would like to introduce myself. I am Mr. N. I do apologize about the mysterious nature of my appearance, but I have some plans in effect that require me to stay, shall I say, 'incognito'. Of course I know who you are, you've made quite a name for yourself, robbing high profile targets without so much as a peep from the Titans. Tell me, how do you do it?"

"That's pretty straightforward, actually. Two things come into play: one, the number of villains this city has. Not as many as there used to be, seeing as how a large number remain flash-frozen somewhere in Europe along with the Brotherhood of evil, but a few did escape, and some other villains have taken the decrease in market as an excuse to make their appearance. Which suits me just fine. I'm not in this to make a name. I just want the money. Power would be nice, but power corrupts, and I have enough issues with that as it is. So I time my robberies. I wait until the Titans get a call somewhere else, and rob the other half of town. I electrocute any guards or armed forces, just to knock them out, because murder is too high profile, and I don't want people remembering I was there. The second part of that is thanks to my abilities. Nearly every place I rob has a security system that's almost impossible to bypass. When it has power."

He puts it together right away. "Ah, so you drain they're security, and any backups, and use the energy from that to make your entrance. Very well done. Now for my second question. I am recruiting, and re-recruiting," he gestures towards the now-standing team, "members for my school, which has been left to me, not through a predecession, necessarily, merely the request of a friend. I would be lying if I said I didn't have other plans, but those are still in the infant stages of execution, and will take time to cultivate. So I felt it would be best if I built a solid foundation of students, and funding, now, as opposed to waiting before it's too late. It's been a slow process, yes, which normally is something I detest, but the fruits of my labor are promising enough that I have found a reservoir of patience in my anticipation. My question is simply this: will you join us?"

I consider this for a moment. Of course I'm going to join, but I have to make sure I do it right. I don't want to seem to eager; that would ruin everything. "Okay. I accept your offer, but I have one request to make in return."

He gives a small laugh, and says, "Of course. Fair trade is always fair game."

"Great," I answer. "Then can you turn around for just a second? That's all I ask."

He considers this for a moment, and finally agrees. "Fifteen seconds, not a moment more."

"That's more than enough."

He nods, or at least I think he does, the top of his cloak moves up and down a little, then he turns around. I spring into action, whipping my hand out and grabbing Gyzmo by the backpack. "Hey, what're you doing, you snot-eating loser?!" He yells, and I ignore it. I drain every ounce of juice from that backpack as fast as I can, which gives me more than a little head rush, and a lot of adrenaline. Then I grab him by the remote control, fling him into the air, and yell, "PULL!" And with all the juice that I just absorbed, I blow him out of the sky. An enormous bolt of white energy flies out of my hands, and lands dead-on with a satisfying bang. He goes flying with a little "EEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..........." and lands a few blocks away, with a loud, "OW." I turn back to the hologram just in time to see Mr. N turning back around. "Thanks. I know if I didn't do that now, I'd never get another chance, and I'd be wanting to every day I'm near him."

He gives a large, appreciative laugh, and the rest of the group laughs with him, after recovering from the slight shock of me shot-putting one of there teammates a few hundred feet. "My dear boy, I think you're going to fit in just fine."

"I think I'm going to enjoy working for you. Just never call me 'dear boy' again. Please."

He stops for a second, laughs again, and the hologram cuts out.

I turn to my new teammates, who are now giving me a variety of looks, ranging from confused to approving, and all I have to say is, "If I have to room with any of you, I get top bunk."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Turns out I don't have to share a room with anyone. That's a plus. The downside is, I'm the new guy, and that requires "initiations". Basically, they're "trying" to frosh me. I say trying because they continue to fail horribly. Gyzmo is the most persistent, being horribly insulted at getting used as a human clay pigeon. I still say I could have shot him farther. I go through all the motions of being a "good" student, I don't think almost anyone in here has the capacity to be good. I say almost, because I keep catching some of the students acting a little weary at some of the tasks they are ordered to do. A couple make the mistake of disobeying a direct order, and are sent to see the headmaster. They come back, but they're different somehow. More obedient, to be sure, but something else is wrong. Of course, what else would you expect from an evil organization that focuses on the education of young villains. Hell, they even have a Junior Hive Academy, for children who have powers, but no parents, or there parents are villains, or something to that effect. Just misguided kids with nowhere else to go, being raised to be something they shouldn't have to be. I can't wait to turn this place to ash.

But anyway, back to the froshing. Most of it's just normal stuff, exploding mashed potatoes, being made to wear a dress, little things But there is one incident that bears repeating in full, not because I'm embarrassed about it and need to talk, but because it is the greatest backfire I have ever bared witness to.

It starts out with Jinx coming to my door one morning, a weekend, so we don't have classes. As soon as I see her, I ask, "What, do I have to model another dress for you? Have Cheshire do it, she loves wearing freaky clothing." She just gives me a look that says "You'll see," and motions for me to follow her. Knowing I'll probably catch all hell if I do, but more out of raw curiosity, I follow. SO she leads me down this long, winding hallway to god knows where, asking me questions like "Do you like it here?" or "How are your classes going?" I answer most of them, stay silent for others, mainly just keeping normal conversation, as if neither of us knew what was going to happen. I had no idea, but I got the general intent. So we finally come to this random door at the end of another corridor she walks me down, and she opens the door, motioning for me to step inside. I can't see crap in this room, but I play along, and step in. She walks in behind me, and turns on a light. I see it's just another sitting room with a couch, a TV, coffee table with doomsday device manuals on it, the normal stuff.

So I sit down on the couch, and make myself comfortable, just waiting for whatever it is she's going to do. So she sits down next to me, and we keep talking. Then she starts getting a little nervous. Not a whole lot, but enough that I notice. But we still just talk about normal things.

"So what made you decide to join the Hive?" she asks me. "It doesn't seem to me like you have any great ambitions outside of making money, you're only doing average in your classes, and it looks most of the time like your bored out of your mind."

I think about that for a bit. Mainly because I can't tell her the real reason I'm here, but mostly because the question makes me think. _Why did I agree to this? Why am I so okay with this mission?_ "I guess, I just missed being normal a little. The accident that made me me got me kicked out of high school. I lost almost all of my friends, and the rest were people that had moved away, or just didn't care. I had to drop out of school two years early. I had a lot of dreams as a kid. Becoming a scientist, like my parents, or being good at sports, like my cousin. But I couldn't do any of that anymore. I was left with robbing stores and selling the material for money to pay rent to a landlord that didn't care how you paid, as long as you paid on time. I've been living on my own for awhile, I guess I just wanted to take the only chance I could get to going back to anything that could be considered normal, or routine, or everyday for someone like me. I mainly just wanted the comfort of not being an outcast in my own home." Wow. I can't believe it. I pulled that out of my ass. That was _good._

She considers me for a moment. "So, you don't really have anywhere to go, either, right? I have some friends here, but they're mostly just teammates. People I work with. I had ambitions to be like Madame Rouge, but after she got herself captured, and Gyzmo broke us free, I lost all respect for her. I just want to make a name for myself, not be someone else anymore."

"So why are you telling ME this?" I ask. She leans in a little closer, more nervous than before. "I guess... I guess I just like having someone I have something in common with. I like you, and I want to be open with you." She scoots closer, leaning on me. "So what do you say? Will you go out with me?"

I have to pause for a second, and rewind that question through my head, along with a billion tiny thoughts. I take a moment to think, almost ready to say yes, because I kind of like her, and I miss having a girlfriend, when I stop. I know I want to say yes, but that feels wrong somehow. And then it clicks. _Reflex_. If I went out with her, he'd never forgive me. It may look like he's just messing with her, skirt-chasing and all that, but from what he's told me, he honestly likes her. And wants better for her. And I'm not about to do that to my best friend. So I tell her, as she's staring at me slightly moony-eyed, "No."

She stares at me for a second. "E-excuse me?"

"Sorry, but no. Sure I like you, but it wouldn't work."

"And why not?"

_Because my best friend is in love with you. _"Because we are way to different. Sure, we have commonalities, but a lot of people do. If you want to talk about it, or just be a friend, that's fine. But I won't date you. You're too front and center, and I like being a part of the woodwork. Plus, no offense, but you're really not my type."

She just stares at me, then slowly looks at the ground, and starts shaking. At first I think she's crying, and I start to regret my answer, but then I see little sparks o energy come off of her. And I hear a nasally little voice in the background pipe up, "Dude, Jinx, you got rejected! By the nose-pickin' newbie, no less!"

I do a double take. "Say what now?" And then the rest of the lights come on. And I see that the little sitting room environment was just props in the middle of a training field, and the rest of the school is surrounding us. And they start laughing. At Jinx. And I start to feel really bad about it, until Billy pipes up, "Looks like your plan to mess with him in front of the whole school failed, little missy!"

And she snaps. She blasts me out of the room with a pink shockwave, and yells after me, "No one rejects me! You're going to pay for that!"

"Okay." _Bring it on, pop-princess. _I drain a large chunk of power out of the wall, because everything, and I mean EVERYTHING in this base is electronic, and blast her back. We go at it for awhile, some of the students cheering, some of them running away from the explosions, but we just keep wailing on each other. Finally, we're both beyond tired, and most of the crowd has died down. I just walk up to her, and hold out a hand. "Truce?" I ask, not expecting much.

She stands herself up from clutching her knees and catching her breath. "Well, you did better than I thought you would, and you are a bit of a challenge. I'm still peeved at you for turning me down, but I can't say I'm disappointed. After all, had you said yes, I'd of just made it look like I was going to kiss you, then blast you out of the chair and laugh in your face. So you're not a total loss." She shakes my hand. "Truce. But don't think this makes us friends. I just don't hate you."

"Fair enough," I agree, and start to walk away.

"By the way," she adds, and I stop and turn around.

"Yeah?"

"You're not my type either."


	8. Trials and Troublemakers

Chapter 8

Ok, the next time someone asks you how people can do the things they do, and commit certain crimes, with no regard for the laws, you tell them this: It's so much freaking fun! I'm not going to try to justify my actions as a member of the Hive Academy, nor am I trying to condone the criminals in this world. I've looted, fought good guys, undermined authority, hell, I even carved "Hive Was Here" into the drive-in screen downtown, using the juice from the projector. They deserved it, that "Burn After Reading" crap sucks so hard. But this is so much fun. And of course, there's undermining the organization I work for in order to discover who their new headmaster is and how he ties in with Riddler's appearance. But that's all coming along really slow.

And, apparently, the Titans do not share my views on villainy and drive-in-burning.

"You are there to study the Hive and keep a low profile! Because of you, they think they can do anything they want! DO you want to make the situation worse?!" Robin yells at me through the com. I'm getting very close to draining this thing and throwing it into the bay. But I can't, because that would be "counterproductive".

"Look, if I show even the slightest bit of hesitancy, they'll know I'm up to something. They've been trying to weed out spies left and right, thanks to Cyborg, and BumbleBee. This isn't exactly easy!"

"Well you're making it look like a walk in the Vagabond Park, man!" Cyborg chips in. None of them are exactly happy about this.

Reflex just sits back and heaves a sigh. "Look, just let him do what he needs to do, I've been arguing with him long enough to know that it usually doesn't amount to anything more than getting pissed off and talking yourself into a corner. And besides, he's been supplying us with some good info. We've already got a map of their base interior, plus dossiers on half the members, and some recorded interviews with the new headmaster. The guy's making some good progress. And at this rate, they're bound to drag him on a priority mission soon, so we might get a better idea of what we're dealing with. What we need to do is worry about how to get him out without getting him killed."

Terra just scowls at me. "I'm more worried about getting him to his next mission alive. Cause if this keeps up, I'm gonna kill him."

"Do you guys always do a group huddle when you're planning someone's demise? Seriously? Can I just keep doing my job?" I'm seriously sick of taking orders from people I'm just doing a favor for. There is a limit to generosity, c'mon. "Look, I have class in ten minutes, just let me do my job."

Maybe I should learn to be nicer to people. Maybe I should learn to respect the authority of those who employ me. Maybe I should just keep my trap shut. All of these are valid thoughts to ponder or procrastinate on. When I'm alone. While fighting the Teen Titans, however, it is very bad to not focus on your opponent. Especially when they can fly. And are much stronger than you.

I dodge out of the way of a very violent taxi cab of flying, and brace myself to absorb another array of starbolts. I throw a large amount of that energy back, and she dodges. And starts throwing things I can't absorb. Oops, lamppost, ducking now. She flies in, and tries to punch me in the face, and I dodge to the side, and grab her arm, chucking her into a semi-trailer. So she flies back up and starts shooting more starbolts at me. You'd think she'd come up with a better attack pattern. Oh, just a second, I have to dodge a mailbox. Ok, done.

CLANG! That would be the mailbox she threw with the other hand. And this would be me flying into a car. And me in pain. I take a second to stand up, and notice she is flying right for me, and I take my therapist's advice and just let it all out. In every direction. I flood a 5 foot circle around me with starbolt energy, and she gets caught right in the middle of it. Fries like a fly, and crashes down hard. Then I feel a large burst of energy at my back, and have just long enough to think "that's a sonic cannon blast" before hitting the wall. It takes me longer to get back up from that, but (fortunately or no) when I do get up, Cyborg's magnetized to a fire escape, thanks to Gyzmo.

So I ignore him, and go for Reflex, taking some juice out of a transformer box on a telephone pole, and blasting him right in the face. Or at least, I would have had he not teleported. SO I spin around and spread electric shots behind me, just in time to catch him before he can kick me in the face. He really is too predictable. It's kind of sad. While I'm contemplating this, however, I receive a kick to the back of the head. _Note to self, they have TWO martial artists._

And that's when I black out. And wake up some odd hours later on my bed at Hive Academy, with my "team" standing around me.

Reflex again. Yay, me, right? SO anyway, we get back to the tower after laying down some much needed whoop-ass on the hive and their newest recruit, we start laying out ideas for getting Siphon out of Hive as fast as possible over a take-in pizza in front of the TV.

SO far, we have diddly-crap. "Look, I know he's not making the progress we need, but he's been more than useful in his current position. And who cares if he has an attitude, that's why he's not on a team." I try and plead his case to stay in the Hive longer. My fellow teammates aren't having any.

"He took out Starfire and yourself in a couple of minutes, without hesitating," Robin argues.

"Yes, but she threw a mailbox at him! Two! And a taxi!"

"And a post of light," she adds. "He did fight valiantly, and with much exuberance. I think the Hive will have no questions about his loyalties now."

"But that's just it. If the Hive doesn't question his loyalties, does that mean we should?" Asks Raven.

"No. There's no way he'd turn on a friend who needs help. He's loyal to us. That just doesn't mean he has to like us," I argue.

"Why can't we just stick to the original plan?" asks Beast boy.

"Because the original plan isn't working. We're not getting the information we need. As a matter of fact, the info we are getting is either stuff we already know, or information that is either not pertinent, or, and this could just be a bad hunch, leading us into a trap," says Robin. Damn him making a point.

"Ok, so how do we help him make his grand escape, when we have tree large walls in front of us?" I ask. They all stare at me. "One, we don't actually know where the base is; two, we don't know if he'll be there when we go to get him; and three, we don't know if they're planning on an invasion, and setting a trap. We could just be walking into their hands. Anyone remember the first Apprentice trap? Or Brother Blood? Anyone?"

I get a couple of glares for my snarkiness, but no one can argue against it.

"So what, we're just going to let him rot there by himself? No way!" Terra shouts.

"I never said we're going to let him rot there. I do have a plan for getting him out ahead of schedule. It's like the old bail-out plan, but better. And faster. And harder. And stronger," I add jokingly. They give me blank looks and shrugs. "You people are so socially undereducated. Remind me when we're done to introduce you people to good Techno."

"Dude, less music, more saving the random hero-turning-villain," BB interrupts. "We can deal with your snide remarks later."

"Yeah, yeah, anyway. Here's the plan…"

"You want me to do what?"

"Relax, Siphon, it's nothing none of us wouldn't do," says SeeMore, attempting to reassure me. It doesn't work.

"Yes, but you guys are idiots!"

"Hey, snot-brain. Watch your mouth if you want to keep it, we're doing you a favor here," snaps Gyzmo.

"How is telling me to break into the headmaster's office and steal your permanent records a favor?! And to try intimidating me, I can still turn you into a Clay Pigeon Oompa Loompa."

"You'd be getting your own, duh," Jinx adds. What does Reflex see in this bitch?

"Yeah, I'd be getting my own! Ending with a big-old ass-kickin'! And why would I want my permanent record, anyway?"

"So you can edit it, dummy," laughs SeeMore. "Make your numbers better."

"My numbers are fine, why should I try to make them better? What is this? You guys have the words 'Alterior Motives' in big bold letters above your heads."

"Relax, cuz, it's tradition," adds Billy, punctuated by three others saying, "Yeah, tradition."

"And? There's no way in hell I'm pissing off the headmaster. If you want this done so bad, send in Kyd Wykkyd to do it."

Jynx huffs, "Because the sensors will pick him up as soon as he hit the ground. You can drain out the sensors before you even get to the office. So get over yourself and do what you came here for!"

I start to build up a retort for her, but then I realize just WHAT she said. And my paranoia kicks in. So I start looking for exits. And stall by asking, quite plainly, "What do you think I'm here for, anyway?"

She kind of looks at me like I'm crazy. "You're here to learn to be a better villain. And what better way to do that than steal from other villains?"

I sigh in relief, then an idea pops into my head. "Well, instead of being a good villain and steal from another villain, how about I be a GREAT villain and threaten another villain," grabbing SeeMore by the shirt, and putting a hand on the wall, drawing in quite a bit of electrical energy, "to steal from that villain for me?!" I hold my hand, crackling with energy, very close to his face to get my point across.

He nods furiously and agrees, and runs off to start on his newest, me-appointed mission. "Now leave me alone, I have plotting and villainy to do," I pause for a second, waiting for them to leave, "Away. From you. GO AWAY."

They don't leave, so I walk away and hide in my room. I hope the Titans get me out of here soon.

"What do you mean you can't help us for a week or two?" I yell into the monitor. Powerhouse is nonchalantly standing amidst a group of people I don't know, including a relatively attractive female in a ninja gi, some kids in street clothes, and a small girl in gothic lolita attire. None of these people I recognize, but the goth chick is cute. But back to the argument.

Powerhouse just looks at me. "I have a situation here. Kunoichi is having issues with some of the ne'er-do-wells at her base, and asked me to help. Remember the Red Jackets group we were talking about making? Well, me and Siphon got it started back at home while you were away at superhero boot camp. And Kunoichi is one of Siphon's recruits-" he gets cut short by the ninja girl throwing him away from the screen, and yells into the mic, "Siphon?! Siphon, where are you? Is he there? Where is he?"

I don't know how to handle this girl. "Um, he's not available at the moment, but if you'd like to leave your name and number, please do so at the sound of the WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!"

She gets knocked out of the screen, and Powerhouse steps back into frame. "That would be Siphon's stalker. We can't say his name while she's around. She does things like that. And the girl you're gawking at is called Gothica. She's fourteen, and mentally younger. Her powers are... weird. But more on that when you meet her. Maybe. She might not talk to you. Hell, she doesn't talk to me."

"You pluck small children from the treads of your shoes, of course she won't talk to you."

"Well, yeah, but still. Anyway, I'm not going to be there to initiate my phase in this plan for a week or two, so tell him to hold in there for a while longer."

I turn off my com to screams of "let me talk to SIPHON!!!!!" "He's not going to like this, this won't go well."


	9. Circle Time

Chapter 9

After my unfortunate conversation with Powerhouse, I decide to break the news to Siphon as quickly as possible. With our comm system still open, I beep Siphon twice, a short signal to let him know who's calling, just in case he's surrounded by Hive students or teachers. He picks up immediately.

"Please gods in heaven tell me you're getting me out of here, like, now. I will bow for eternity at your feet if you do so," Siphon pauses, then "Ok, probably not that, but I'll cook dinner for a week."

I'm not sure how to tell him now. "Um..." is all I manage to get out.

"Um? UM?! Is that it?! Please god tell me that's an um of, 'We have a way out now but you're not going to like it!'"

"It's more um off 'We can't get you out for a week because Powerhouse got stalled helping out one of your new friends.' By the way," I add, faking a slightly pissed-off tone to try and distract him from the bad news payload I just unloaded on him, "Since when have the Red Jackets actually had a base? And members?!"

He shrugs it off like old news. "Since you went boot-camping. Don't change the subject. Did you say a week?!"

"Unfortunately, yes. And according to Powerhouse, that's sounding like best case scenario right now. Please don't kill me through the screen."

"Believe me, if I could, you'd have knives in your kneecaps, and I would be much happier right now."

"Again, please don't kill me."

"Anyway, you said Powerhouse was helping a friend of mine? Who?"

"Some chick named Kunoichi," I answer nonchalantly, and he pales slightly. "What?"

He glances over his shoulder. "She's not with you, is she?"

"No," I give him a quizzical look. "Why is she stalking you, anyway?"

He sighs in relief. "I have no idea. She just showed up one day, I must've said something to set her off, or something, because she won't leave me alone. It gets worse."

I don't want to ask, but I have to. "How can it get worse? You have a crazy, albeit smoking hot, ninja chick quite literally after your balls. She scares me man."

He shudders for a moment, pauses, and says, "She can melt through solid objects."

"What, like ghosting?"

"Much worse. You know that creepy thing some stalkers do in movies where they wait for you in bed? With her it's literal, I mean she is IN the bed. Like, one with the mattress."

"Wow. That's, like, totally creepy and amazingly hot all at the same time. Gives a new meaning to the phrase body pillow."

"I'm not joking, Reflex! She sets my paranoia off like a hand grenade! Besides, it's not going to be any better for you when you get to base," he sneers at me. I didn't know he could sneer.

"What are you talking about? And since when can you sneer?"

"I picked it up here. It's a criminal thing. Or a smart-ass thing. Anyway, I'm talking about this chick named Gothica."

"You mean the creepy fourteen-year-old that looks like she belongs in a Deathnote episode? Why should I worry about her? She doesn't even talk to Powerhouse, why would I worry about her?"

"Because she's obsessed with you, man. And besides, Powerhouse is like a bald Chewbacca with Ki blasts, of course she doesn't talk to him. He has child-crushingly large hands and dresses like a Hell's Angel sponsered by Levi. But you're the biggest hero she ever had. You know how Powerhouse has DBZ posters freaking everywhere, right?"

"Yeah. I know. He wants me to buy more."

"She's got posters of you."

"... … … What?"

"It's weird man. You're her idol. Apparently it has something to do with the fact that the first time you used your powers, you did it to help people, and have been doing it ever since. The first time her powers broke out, her dog died."

"Ouch," I flinch.

"Yeah, don't talk about dogs around her. She breaks down in tears and hides in her room the rest of the day."

"Jeez, what are her powers?"

He flinches. "Don't ask, we're still working on that. But Reflex, she's like... how do I put this. You remember Excel Saga, right? Excel's obsession with Il Palazzo?"

"Yeah..."

"I caught her taking notes."

I shudder deeply, and part of me dies inside. "So now we both have stalkers?"

"No, I have a stalker. You have a 14-year old gothic messed up fangirl that would probably do anything you asked."

"That's.... that's both the most disturbing and at the same time greatest thing I have ever heard."

"I figured you'd say that. Now, back to you getting me out of here..."

I slump into the chair in front of the main computer, defeated. Not even stalkers, fangirls, and anime talk can get Siphon off track when he wants something.

I stroll back to my room, and on the way walk into Terra and Robin banging on Beast Boy's door. I think about asking them if everything's ok, but I really don't want to deal with sarcasm right now, so I slide my VidGoggles on, flip through the Titan security cameras like TV channels, and find BB lounging in the game room with Cyborg. I casually walk up to the furious blonde and slightly annoyed fearless leader getting ready to ram Beast Boy''s door down.

"He's in the game room, you know."

Robin and Terra exchange glances, and Terra bolts off in the direction I came from. Robin just turns to me and asks, "So when is Operation: Bail Siphon going down?"

I explain the long-winded conversation between me and Powerhouse, then me and Siphon, excluding any info on Gothica and Kunoichi. The fewer people Robin thinks he has to work with, the less confusing this gets.

"Did he report any progress on the headmaster?"

"He said something about the other Hive members wanting him to break in to the headmaster's office, but he turned them down because he suspected alterior motives. I told him all villains have alterior motives, and to just take any chance he can get to research this psychotic bastard. The only thing he's been able to piece together so far is that the headmaster and Riddler have some kind of business agreement, but he doesn't know how they know each other, or what they're after," I pause to take a breath.

"Well, with the Riddler being inactive since before we sent Siphon in, I'm wondering if he hasn't already gotten what he wants and left. Maybe we're looking in the wrong places," he ponders.

"I don't think so. We would have heard from the JLA if Riddler had made a move by know, especially after you took all that time to convince Batman that you could handle him. I think your track record with the Brotherhood of Evil helped."

"You're probably right, but his inactivity worries me a lot. Even Slade didn't take this long to move his plans into action."

"Speaking of which, we haven't heard from him since I joined the team. You think he's working on something?"

"I ask myself that question every day."

"And it keeps you up every night. Yeah, I know. But seriously, we're running out of options here. Without Powerhouse, we can't bust Siphon out without ruining everything. And now that I know Siphon and PH have started up this Red Jackets team, god knows when they're going to ask me to make a contribution."

"So what is this team, anyway?"

I wave him into my room, and have him take a seat. "It's kind of a long story. See, Siphon and Powerhouse got their powers before I did. Hell, even I don't know how I got my superpowers, let alone why they kicked in the same year Siphon and PH's did. But we'd decided, after Powerhouse first learned of his abilities, that if I ever got powers, we'd make a home for ourselves. And take in other kids with powers. You know, like the whole Peter Pan and the Lost Boys thing. We'd create a place, no, an entire city where it was just kids with powers leading normal lives. I never dreamed it would actually happen, and to be perfectly honest, after I got my abilities, and made my way back from France, I completely forgot about it. Until today."

"So will you leave the Titans if they ask you to?"

"It depends on when they ask. I still have a lot I plan to do while I'm on this team. If they ask me before I'm able to accomplish all of it, it will depend entirely on whether or not I can work towards those goals from their side. But I can promise you this," I add, nodding at my leader. "If and when I do join the Red Jackets, I will always consider the Titans an ally."

He just considers me quietly. "You know, you can still be a horse's ass, but you've come along way from who you were when you joined this team."

"I don't think you guys would have let me live this long if I hadn't. Speaking of threats on my life, where's Raven?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen her since this morning."

I scan through my VG's through the Titan's cameras again, I find Cyborg playing by himself in the game room, Terra yelling at Beast Boy about something, Starfire feeding Silky, and nothing else. I scan every room in the house before I scan Raven's, mostly out of courtesy. I peek a look into her room, and find her meditating. Then I get blasted in the face. Apparently she knows I looked into her room. I land on my back on the floor. "Well, she was meditating in her room until she zapped me."

And, just on cue, I hear a large bang on my door. I put on my best I-didn't-do-anything innocent grin, and answer the door, holding my arm in front of me like a cheap butler. The door opens to reveal a very, very agitated blue sorceress, staring daggers into my psyche. "Does the madame wish to speak to the master of the house?" I use the thickest English accent my vocal chords will allow.

It doesn't help. "Why, in the name of Azar, did you think it a good idea to look into my room?" Her voice is cold, ruthless. I fear for my me.

"Would it help if I said I was honestly concerned about you? We've seen as much of you as we have the Riddler." I drop the English accent, not wanting to make things worse.

Robin interjects, "To be fair, that's kind of typical."

She just glares at him, and he makes some excuse about helping Starfire do whatever it is she'd doing, and scurries off.

She goes back to trying to kill me with her mind. Which terrifies me, because that's kind of what she does. "So that gives you the right to peek into my room?"

"Hey, I just wanted to know where you were. And I only scanned your room after every other room in the tower. I have decency."

"Just not enough," she snaps, then blasts me back into my room, and phases into the floor to I don't want to know where.

After she disappears, I take it upon myself to research the rest of my teammates, and get everyone up to speed. Assuming Robin did actually go talk to Starfire, I just need to talk to Terra, Beast Boy, Cyborg, and get one of them to explain things to Raven. Because after this, there's no way she'll talk to me again today.

I decide to search for my compatriots on foot, not wanting to accidentally scan into another of Raven's meditation sessions, and get another face full of "Don't Do That". Cyborg is easy enough to find, having tracked him to the game room earlier. Debriefing him is harder, for every time I try to get in a word edgewise, he shuts me down and tells me to be quiet while he finishes his game, saying, "We'll talk after this round."

Fifteen rounds later, I'm still shushed, and he's still ignoring me. I take the time from the next few rounds to write everything down, and tape the note to the console. Hopefully, he'll see it when he turns the thing off. IF he turns the thing off. On to the bickering couple. Seriously, I have no idea if they're going out or not. Hell, now's a better time than any to ask.

Finding them was about as easy as finding Cyborg, and talking to them is just as difficult. I have no idea what they're yelling about, but I catch snippets like "When was the last time we went out?" And "Since when have you treated this like a real relationship?" From Terra and Beast Boy, respectively. I try to slowly walk away, and not get involved in yet another argument, but only get about 5 steps before I hear the words "Let's hear what Reflex has to say about this!"

This can't go well, so I try to walk faster, but an octopus tentacle wraps around my waist and plops me back into the room. I decide teleporting would be a little rude, so I stay to hear their dilemma. Apparently, Terra is under the impression that Beast Boy should be devoting more time into their relationship. Beast Boy, on the other hand, is in the same boat I am. Neither of us are sure if there's even a relationship to devote time to. And I point this out. "I'm not even sure if you guys are actively dating or not. How am I supposed to lend my opinion when I have no idea what's gong on?"

Terra just shoots me a nasty look. "You're not helping! At least try and convince him that he should put more effort into making this work if he wants there to be a relationship at all!"

I just turn to Beast Boy, already tired of this conversation. "You should put more effort into making this work if you want there to be a relationship at all." He just shrugs at me, and I turn back to Terra. "I tried."

She throws up her hands in aggravation, lets out a scream, and storms off to her room. I take this opportunity to fill BB in on today's happenings. He adds his input, which is mainly conspiracy theories mixed with a little bit, (very little) of helpful insight. I also ask him to relay this info to Raven, because she isn't talking to me. And I explain our little exchange a few hours ago. He heads off to catch up with Terra, and fill her in, and I finally make it back to my room.

As soon as I walk in, something doesn't feel right, but I can't tell what. Not noticing anything out of the ordinary, I shake it off, I get undressed, and get ready for bed. I'm about to change my boxers when I hear a very loud "Ahem" from behind me. I turn to see a very (again) agitated Raven sitting on my bed. "For someone that can see everything that goes on in this tower at any time, you're certainly not very observant."

I pause for a few seconds, not knowing exactly what to say in this scenario, and for the second time today I take the obviously wrong approach. Leaning against my dresser, I strike a pose, and in a very obviously, yet well done, if I do say so myself, fake manly voice, I say "So... come here often?"

She just shoots me a glare and barks at me to put on some clothes. "You may be well-built, but you aren't very well programmed."

"Ouch, and the ref takes a point away," I flinch dramatically, then throw on a bathrobe. "What can I do for you? Showing up in the middle of the night, in my bedroom, watching me strip down to my underwear, there's something going on." I give her my best Hollywood grin. I'm just in an ornery mood today.

She shudders a little, more for dramatic effect. "Look, I just wanted to talk to you about this privacy issue."

"And coming into my room in the middle of the night, watching my shed my skin is going to help your point how?"

"I assumed you would be embarrassed about someone watching you half-naked," I interrupt with one of those 'yeah, like that'd happen' scoffs, "but I was obviously mistaken. Look, I'll admit I overreacted when I blasted you earlier and got in your face, but you kind of deserved it. There are a million other ways you could have handled that."

"Yeah, ok, I did make a poor decision. But let's be realistic here," I move over and sit on the bed, she moves to the chair on the other side of the room, "You pretty much either meditate, or read books when your alone. Hell, I've seen you when you burst out of your room after someone wakes you up, you're still wearing that one-piece. At least I didn't find you naked."

She blushes furiously. "I came here to say something, don't ruin it by making me end you."

I shrug and set my alarm, and move through the regular motions of getting ready for bed, staying silent and letting her talk. "So..." She walks around for a bit, and ends up thumbing through my music collection. Her eyes widen when she gets to a certain section, so I waltz over to see what caught her eye. I see her browsing the J-Metal section, which has a little German and Russian death metal mixed in. "See anything you like?" I ask, directly over her shoulder. She jumps a bit. And moves to the middle of the room.

"I was just surprised to see the music selection you had. I just assumed that you only listen to techno music that sounded like a cheerleader fed through a synthesizer."

"Hey, I'm not that bad."

"Yeah, I'm starting to see that. Look, I'm sorry about earlier, let's just leave it at that." She moves back to my cd rack and pulls a small stack of cases from the shelf. "Do you mind if I borrow a couple of these?"

I give her a fake hurt-puppy frown. "But what will I dance naked to now?"

She gives me a startled look, and stated very quickly. "I'm going to go now."

"Oh, c'mon, I'm kidding. I wear boxers." I grab her arm. "Look, I've been wanting to talk to you for awhile, let me put some actual clothes on, sit down."

She hesitates for a moment, then stands at the door, then waits for me to put pants and a shirt on.

After I get re-dressed, we sit down, and I fill her in on everything that transpired today, even telling her about Kunoichi and Gothica, asking her opinion on Beast Boy and Terra's predicament, and anything else we could think of. We talked well into the night, eventually running out of topics and and just talked to have something to say. There were no awkward silences, we made jokes every now and then, but mainly just talked like two good friends. Eventually, we went to bed, but not after becoming better friends, just for taking the time to communicate.

Today was a pretty good day.


	10. TIme to BAIL!

Chapter 10

"OhshitOhshitOhshitOhshitOhshitOhshitOhshit-" I barrel down a hall and slam the door behind me, abandoning all my pretenses and calling the Titans on the emergency frequency. Robin's face blips onto the screen, and he asks, "What is it, Siphon?"

Still not calmed down yet, I continue my breathless chain of "Ohshitohshitohshitohshit..."

"Calm down and tell me what happened," he orders, and his demanding presence calms me down enough to yell into my com, "You will NOT like what I just found out!"

It started off with a normal game of Heroes and Villains, me and Kyd Wykkyd playing villains, Jinx and Gizmo playing heroes. They were failing horribly. We took a few hits from Gyzmo to start, but Kyd Wykkyd teleported behind him, and kicked him in the back of the head, and Gyzmo went flying in my direction. I'd started the fight by shouting, "The midget is MINE!", so Kyd Wykkyd sent the technotubby flying my way. I'd caught him and drained his pack, then threw him into the air, and, picking up a loose floor panel, tennis racketed him into the trap. My glorious kill was taken from me by SeeMore using his safety sphere to snag Gyzmo out of the air, and he bounces back over to me. I took the opportunity to jump into the air, and yell out "He shoots", kicking him straight at Jinx. Currently engaged in fighting Kyd Wykkyd, she was caught off-guard by the Midget-a-punt rocketing towards her. The two failures of villains collide with each other, and both are disqualified,"He scores."

At being declared the victor, I pump my fists in the air, and yell, "Midget for the win!", then proceeded to blast the hell out of the civilian dummies hanging above the death trap, which was a massive pit of grinding blades and spikes, electrically charged, and filled with burning tar. I blasted the ropes on some, and watched their satisfying demise. All the while singing, "One little, two little, three little corpses.." with each dummy I blast.

After the training, we all met in an after briefing. Jinx took the time to bitch at me for trying to kill Gyzmo. I explained gently, "We're villains! EVIL! Well, I'm evil, you're imcompetent, and he" pointing at Mammoth, "is shortbus. Gyzmo is a wind-up toy from the Jigsaw Killers house of crap."

She continued to bitch at me, regardless. "Oh, c'mon, he could have flown away! He's fine!"

"You drained his backpack!"

"I said I was evil, didn't I?"

Our headmaster, Mr. N, popped into the room, wearing his weird cloak thing. "Congratulations on your overwhelmingly vicious win today, Siphon. I was... impressed by your aptitude and willingness to do anything to destroy any opponent."

"Nah, I just hate the midget."

"My name's Gyzmo, you snot-eating scrum-buffer!"

I blasted him into silence, "I invent new ways to abuse him every day."

"I see. It seems you have a tendency to act irrationally, as well. We could use someone like you for the newest step in our plan."

I fake a superior pose, holding my hand to my chin. "Hmmm, your proposition intrigues me," I relax my pose and approach the conversation more professionally. "Seriously, I'd be happy to help." _Finally, some damn progress!_ "What can I do for you?"

"Meet me in my office this afternoon, I will share the details with you there."

"Sure. Thanks for your consideration."

As the headmaster left, the rest of the team just glared at me, more than aggravated at my instant success. I just posed gloatingly and walked off.

Robin glares at me through the com, "What does this have to do with anything?!"

"I'm getting there, shut your cake-hole," I bark. He glares at me, but I go on.

A few hours later, about lunch, I made my first unfortunate semi-discovery. I sat at a bench and ate my lunch like normal, nobody really wanted to sit next to the team-killing bastard. But not having anyone sitting right next to me made it easier to eavesdrop. I heard a few feet away from me, one of the groups talking about how the headmaster had spent a lot of time in some secret room. The conversation kind of went like this:

Villain 1: "I heard he has some weird death machine in there."

Villain 2: "Like some kind of doomsday device?"

Villain 3: "I heard it was some kind of endgame. Not sure what, though."

Villain 2: "I heard he had some kind of super-meta in there that he was using for his endgame. Like the whole class project we've been working on? It has something to do with that."

Villain 1: "Really? That's deep, man."

I lost interest after that, because they started talking about the philosophy of villainy, and I didn't care. But the fact that they had some kind of superbeing the headmaster was using for his final step was very unnerving.

After lunch, we had a free period for a couple of hours, and I wasn't scheduled to meet with the headmaster till much later. So I decided to go mess with my teammates. First off was Gyzmo, because I was bored. I made my way to his room, but stopped halfway there, right outside Jinx's bedroom, because I heard crying. I knocked on her door, (I'm not a totally heartless bastard, you know.) and all I got was her screeching "Go away!"

Being me, I obviously ignored it, and drained the power from her door, triggering a safety and forcing it open. She tried to blast me away, but I sidestepped, and before she could blast me again, I did the only thing I could think of to stop her blowing me away, and pinned her with a hug. Still crying, she tried to struggle free, but I held her in place, trying not to give her room to fight back. She eventually gave up, and collapsed into quiet sobs against my shoulder. To be perfectly honest, my intent wasn't to console her, at least not this way. But being a nice guy, I let her cry it out.

She eventually calmed down, and sat on her bed. I noticed that parts of her room had been trashed. She looked up at me, and I told her, "Just tell me what happened."

With a hard look in her eyes, she explained, "You happened. You were perfectly ready to take his life, I've never seen anyone in this academy so ready to kill. He may be annoying, but he is my friend."

I just scoffed at her. "That's not all it is. If that's the only thing bothering you, you would have come after me immediately."

She just sighed heavily. "It's not just that. The headmaster chose _you_. I've been here for years, given everything I can to be better, but you've only been here three months, and he goes straight for you."

I took a moment then, because I realized something. "So that's why Reflex and Kid Flash like you."

She glared at me for that. "What?"

"You don't have the heart of a villain. I haven't really seen it till now, but they must've noticed right from the off. If you were a real villain, your first concern would be your position and rank, but you started in on Gyzmo, your comrade. You have the heart of a hero, raised to be a villain through your powers. Look, I'll let you in on a secret, but you cannot tell anyone here. I'm going to be leaving soon, either with help or of my own volition. I can't tell you any more than that, but I can tell you, that if you want out, I can make that happen. But only if you promise me something."

She'd been listening with rapt attention this entire time, so it didn't surprise me when she asked "What? What do you want?"

"Promise that when you get out, you'll go straight to Reflex. Don't stop for anyone, don't do anything until you find him."

She looks at me curiously. "What connection do you have to him?"

"I don't, but you need help, and after what you did to Kid Flash, he sounds like the only one still willing to help. So if I do break you out, you will go straight to him."

She sounded hesitant, but she agreed. I decided to leave her alone after that, before I gave something away that I shouldn't.

I still had some time to kill, so I went looking for other teammates, but ended up making my way to the headmaster's office early. The door was open a crack, so I decided to make myself at home. The office was a stereotypical power seat in a large room, with a tiny chair sitting across the desk for the headmaster's almost-throne. I sat in the tiny chair for awhile, hoping the headmaster would show up early, and my eyes wandered around the room. I noticed a bookcase at the side of the room, with one of the books slightly askew. Out of sheer boredom and curiosity I stood up, and pulled it off the shelf. The title was in a language I didn't recognize, and put it back. It clicked into place, and the bookcase slid to the side to reveal passage into a lower chamber. I remember thinking that it was a dramatic stereotype, and then the door behind me clicked.

I whipped around to see the headmaster standing there, but I didn't hear him come in at all. "Good to see you're early for your appointment," he remarked. He walked over to the bookcase, and slid in back into place. "Don't worry about the shelves, curiosity is natural in people like us."

"And what kind of person do you think I am?"

"A criminal," he answered, more as a complement than anything else. He sat in the big chair, and motioned for me to take a seat. I complied.

"Well, Siphon, I believe your actions have proven you to be a reliable ally in my little endeavor. Or, I should say," and he motioned to a section of wall that slid away, to reveal another person in his cloak, another Mr. N. "Our endeavor."

The second Mr. N moved to stand by the first, and the first stood, moving the chair aside. They stood shoulder to shoulder, the only discernible difference was that the newest one was slightly lighter build. I couldn't think of anything to say, so I choked out, "That's interesting."

The second one took a fold of his robe in one hand, and with a swift motion, pulled the entire visage away, to reveal none other than the Riddler himself. The man in green performed a few acrobatics, standing on the table, and announced himself. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am The Riddler, also known as Edward Nigma!"

"Well, that explains the Mr. N..."

"Yes, my dear boy! It's been so hard for me to restrain myself, I so much prefer my theatric ways to the humdrum semantics of the indifferent headmaster I had been forced to play to enact our dastardly plans!" The other man just stood still, waiting patiently for his turn.

The Riddler continued on his tirade of antics and acrobatics. "My young ward, you shall be one of the greatest attributes to our plan that I have ever thought of! Come, I will explain everything in time, follow me!"

Nigma opened the passageway I found earlier, and he, the other Mr. N, and myself descended a flight of stairs into a chamber that I'm not entirely sure I could describe. The major features were simple and straightforward, the most noticeable being the young boy chained to the wall, his long, black hair descendant over his face, with only a pair of shorts for clothing, the rest exposed to the harsh cold that I had felt upon entering the room. The other items were more devious, torture devices, a rack, small bladed instruments, and a series of wires that led from the young man's vital points to a vicious looking engine opposite him that fed into large canisters lining the room.

Riddler took some time to describe the pleasantries of the room, and in his rantings I determined that the young man's name was Obsidiant, a name that vaguely rang a bell, but I couldn't place it. Apparently the young man's ability was to release a certain energy type that literally absorbed any light and heat in an area, slowing body functions and depleting all light in an area. "We've been slowly draining his powers from him through a series of tortures and abuse, but the output is much to low. What I need from you, dear boy," he said, placing a hand on my shoulder. At this point I was too horrified to say anything, fortunately he took my silence as me patiently waiting for him to continue.

"What I need from you is for you to use that awesome ability of yours, and drain as much as you can out of this boy, and pour it into our glorious machine! DO that as many times as it takes to fill these glorious machines to capacity!"

The other headmaster had not said anything, but chose this time to add in, "Your assistance will not go unrewarded in this venture." As he spoke, my mind formulated a plan, a way to break free of this place once and for all, a way to free myself, this poor soul, and Jinx all at once.

I slowly turned to the Riddler, then to the unknown man, and said, "I accept."

Riddler bounded about the room, "Glorious! Well, my boy, let me see what you can do!"

The other man just nodded at me, and I walked up to the boy chained to the wall. He woke and stared at me, with pleading eyes, and my resolve strengthened. I leaned in to whisper in his ear, and faked a malicious grin as I told him, "Don't react to this statement. This is going to hurt quite a bit, then hurt some more, and then I'm going to rip you from this wall. But I will break you free, just hold still."

I grabbed hold of his shoulders, and drained as much of his energy as I could. I then moved over to the machine, and poured his energy into the machine. At the same time, though, I drained electrical energy from the device. Halfway back to Obsidiant, though, I use one hand to blast electrical energy into the engine, and used Obsidiant's energy to radiate a cloak field, blackening the room, and using my electrical energy to create a small light source in my hands. I immediately moved for Obsidiant, blasting the chains off of him, and pulled him from the walls, ripping the cords from his bodies.

Someone moved in front of me to stop me, but I grabbed their arm and poured all the electrical energy I had left into his body, making him seize. I ran out of the hidden room, dragging the other kid with me, surprisingly, he was keeping up pretty well. After awhile, I found myself running down the hall with Jinx's room. I slammed a hand against the wall, and drained all the power I could out of the wall, nearly maxing out. Her room defaulted open, and I screamed at her to follow. She gave me a startled look, but must have seen something in my expression, or Obsidiant said something that I didn't hear, because she grabbed a duffle bag, surprisingly full, and followed me out. Soon after, the alarm sounded, and Gyzmo burst out into our way, screaming, "Here they are!" I didn't even flinch, I grabbed the controller to his pack, and pumped so much power into it that his backpack exploded, sending him flying. The three of us tore out of the complex, and I had just enough time to yell out "One for the road!" as Jinx blasted the front door open.

We hauled ass across the open plains outside the City, and made our way into the suburbs, surprisingly with little interference. It happened really quickly, and I don't remember a lot of fighting, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. At the edge of the city, I turned back, just in time to watch the factory complex that was the Hive's outer shell and disguise come down in a chain reaction, no doubt caused by my destruction of that horrible machine. Just in time to see a figure standing outside the complex. It was the other Mr. N, and most of his outfit was torn, and all I saw was pieces of armor. Then he pulled the cloak away, and revealed his real identity.

Robin had stayed quiet through most of the story, but stops me here. "Who was it?"

"Hold on! Jinx, Obsidiant and I are all in an apartment complex across the bay from the tower, you know the one. We don't really have a way across the water, man."

He just sighs, and says, "Fine, I'll come get you."

"Thanks. By the way," I add.

"Yeah?"

"It's Slade." CLICK. I hang up.

I walk past Robin's room when I see BB and Cyborg leaning against his door, trying to listen in on something. Cyborg looks up and says, "Hi Reflex," then leans against the door again.

I figure asking won't get me anywhere, so I lean against the door myself, just in time to hear Robin scream at the top of his lungs, "SSLAAADE!!!"


	11. The First Aftermath

Chapter 11

The news that Slade is now one of the headmasters of Hive academy has not been sitting well with our fearless leader. He's currently sulking in his room going over every Slade file and piece of information he has. Obsidiant is getting acquainted with the rest of the team, Siphon is currently on the line with the Red Jackets, and Jinx and I are camping out on the roof, sitting on the edge and watching the sunset.. For the last couple of days since Siphon's escape, things have been kind of hectic. We've been fighting Hive members all over the city, and Robin has been giving us training lessons left and right. Finally getting a moment of peace has given us all a chance to calm down.

"So, let me ask you a question," Jinx says. Being straightforward has worked for her so far, I'm not surprised she's keeping it up.

"Sure, what's up?"

"Well, I've been here for a couple of days, and yes, it's been absolutely psycho here, but isn't there something we need to talk about?"

"Yeah, actually, now's a good time for it. Siphon told me about the deal he made with you to get you out. I'm actually kind of surprised he was able to convince you."

"Why would you say that?"

"Well, for one, it's Siphon, and the only reason he can convince me to do anything is because I've been hanging out with him for a few years, and it's made me kind of gullible. That, and you're really headstrong, I figured he would have had to blackmail you to get you to do anything. Hell, I've spent a year trying to convince you to be a good guy, and it wasn't working."

"No, you spent a year trying to get with me, being good or evil had nothing to do with it."

I think about it for a second. "Yeah, that's true. Hitting on someone every time you see them isn't very good incentive to get them to join the good buys. Besides, it didn't help that we were fighting n the middle of the street."

"Yeah. You know, I always thought that my bad luck was always the reason I couldn't play the hero. Maybe I just never tried. I mean, Raven was told her entire life that she was evil, and even after she ended the world, she still fought for the right thing. I'm not even sure I want to be fighting anymore."

I stand up and walk closer to her, standing behind her. "So does this mean you're leaving?"

"Nah. Siphon made me promise to come to you, said that you could help me. Besides, just because I'm not fighting, at least for now, doesn't mean I can't help." She stands up, and takes a step towards me.

"Well, you already know that I'll do anything I can to help. And if you don't want to fight, or use your powers, than that's fine. I never had any expectations of you. I just want you to do what you think is going to be better for you in the long run."

"I know all of that. Look, getting and giving help isn't the only reason I'm staying." Her eyes shy away from me as she says this.

"So what else is there?"

She takes another step forward, and lays her arms on my chest. "Let's just say you're better at the flirting thing than you think. But not by much." She smiles, and leans in to kiss me.

I wrap my arms around her, and press my lips against hers. And it's so much better than I thought it would be. We stood there for an eternity inside a few minutes, and decided joining the rest of the group could wait.

I make my way back downstairs maybe an hour later, Jinx on my arm. We'd spent a good deal of time talking, about each other, the team, but mostly we either kissed, or sat and watched the sky. On the way back to the common room, we ran into Terra and Beast Boy, having another argument.

"My god, do you two ever let up?" Jinx asks. Since she got here, she's been witness to more than a few shouting matches.

Terra just glares at her, "Nobody asked you, you technicolor monkey wrench."

I have to physically restrain myself from laughing, especially since Jinx has a death grip on my good arm. I can feel her fingers tighten in a warning: "Laugh, and it comes off."

Beast Boy, however, is laughing so hard he can't breathe. I wrench myself free from Jinx, and smack him on the back to let air into his lungs. When that doesn't work, I kick his legs out from under him. His laughter is cut short with a brief "Ow."

Which sets Jinx off. She doubles over in laughter, than just walks off, and walks into my room. I help Beast Boy up, and he stomps on my toe. "Even?" He asks me.

I hop on one foot for a moment, while Terra lets loose a good chuckle. "Yeah, we're fine. So what is it this time?"

Beast Boy leads me into his room, and Terra shuts herself in hers. "Dude, I don't know what her deal is! I just told Raven she's been looking better lately, and she went off the hook!"

"Raven did?" I'm lost.

"No, Terra! Jeez, I don't know what that woman wants from me. I'm the one that did all the work to get her back here! I'm the one that convinced Raven to restore her memory! She said 'thanks' once, and I thought we'd just go back to where we were before Slade showed up! Good friends, maybe start going out a little! Now she's this super-possessive ball and chain!"

"Dude, dude, I'm not the target, stop breaking my ear drums. I have J-Metal for that."

"Sorry man, I just don't know how much more of this I can take! I like her and all, but I had no idea she'd be like this when we finally got together!"

"Again, less screaming, more making sense."

"Right," he sighs, and plops down on the bottom bunk. I clean off a chair, which takes a few minutes, and sit down in the middle of the room. "I just want things to go back to the way they were. Terra was so happy when she got her memory back. I even remember the night it happened. Raven had just finished doing her magic mumbo-jumbo thing, and Terra walked out into the common room, wearing the uniform we kept for her. She looked just like she did the night she first came back. She knew we wouldn't hold anything against her, we'd told her so ourselves. I made sure to repeat it like, a dozen times."

I remember that night, too. "She did look happy. Like she'd found everything she'd ever wanted."

BB sighed again, "She could be a Titan again. No lies, no problems with her powers, no Slade. God, when we finally have to face him again, it's not gonna be pretty. He's caused problems for everyone. Robin won't stop until he's done, Terra will want her revenge, even Raven has something personal to hold against him now. So do I, for taking Terra away, turning her into that traitor.

"But that doesn't mean she can just be so rude to me. I've tried everything I can to make her happy, we've talked for hours, trying to get to the heart of the problem, then when that doesn't work, we just fight again. I don't even remember the last time we had a date, or a good meal, or just hung out together. Maybe it wasn't really ever supposed to happen."

"Maybe," I nod to him. "If you're not happy, just tell her. Maybe she needs to stop demanding stuff from you. You've done everything she's asked, right? Maybe she needs to take some time to return the favor. And you need to be the one to tell her," I add, poking him in the chest. "It's not going to get any better if she doesn't know how you really feel. And if you to get into a fight about you wanting to be happy, maybe you should just let it go, start looking elsewhere."

He sighs, "Yeah. That's not a bad idea. Glad I thought of it," he laughs.

I just favor him with a good chuckle. "Yeah, you can be really on the ball sometimes, right?"

"Yeah."

"So what was that about?" Jinx asks me after I make my way into the room. She's sprawled out on the bed, reading some random comic from my collection. I think it's one of my Deadpool novels.

"Just some guy talk. Something Cyborg and Robin need to work on. I've been playing the mediator for a lot of things lately. Especially after Siphon started his Hive mission."

"Maybe you should have gone undercover. There was infighting all over the place back at school."

"Oh, goddess, no," I groan, and plop down on the bed next to her. She leans on my arm, still working on the comic. "I hated high school. And I can't stand the thought of learning to use my powers just to hurt people, or use fear as a weapon." I do a double take after my last statement, "Sorry, I-I didn't mean-"

"It's ok," she cuts me off. "Personally, neither did I. I just liked the thought of being someone others could look up to."

"I could look up to you, if you were into that kind of thing."

She pauses for a moment, then punches my arm. "You can be really bad, you know?"

My response is cut off by a knock at my door, and Raven saying, "Reflex, c'mon, we have a team meeting."

"We're sorry, there is no one here by that name," Jinx stifles a laugh. "If you'd like to leave a message, please do so at the sound of the _Zinthos._"

Jinx falls off the bed in hysterics at that one, and Raven bursts into the room, and grabs my by the collar. Dragging me out the door, she growls, "If I have to put up with Robin's tyrannizing, so do you."

"Fine, but I want it in writing that you owe me a sandwich for this." I pause, remembering her cooking. "Screw that, I just want my cd's back.

She just scoffs, grinning, and drags me into the lobby, Jinx following us, highly amused.

"You know," I say, making a grandeur pose as I enter the common area, "If you are going to throw me a party, I demand more cake!"

Cyborg just walks past me with half a thought, "Man, the cake is a lie."

"Ok, I have to give you that one." I take a seat on the couch between Jinx and Siphon, with Obsidiant at the end, and Terra and Beast boy on the other side of the couch. Starfire and Raven are standing, and Cyborg and Robin are in front, standing next to a large whiteboard.

"Ok," starts Robin, "We know that Riddler and Slade are working on a new project together, involving Obsidiant's abilities-"

"-who they no longer have-" Siphon interrupts.

"-their base is located 3 miles outside of town-"

"-which I blew up-"

"-and they have a large supply of negative energy-"

"-which I also destroyed-"

"-located," Robin growls, glaring at Siphon, "in varous places around the city, under heavy guard. Obsidiant has been so nice as to lend us as much information and material as we need to be able to scan for this stuff, now that we know it has a readable energy signature, and that it can be stored-"

"-don't think I'm going to shut up for that," Siphon adds.

Robin snaps his little extendable pointer, and Cyborg restrains him as he tries to attack my friend. I just give him a look, "Siphon, please stop. We can joke around later."

"Ok. That I will stop for."

Robin straightens himself out. "Thank y-"

"-for the moment."

Robin lunges at Siphon, and Starfire drags him to the back of the room, restraining him. Cyborg takes point.

"Ok, these guys haven't made any threats with this material yet. And we don't have any pinpointed locations yet, that's going to take some fine tuning, and a sample of the refined material. SO until they surface, which, now that we know they have this stuff, is very likely to happen, we need to be on alert at all times, and if we find anything before they make their move, everybody has to know. We don't know how far out these guys have stretched their numbers, investigation of their fallen Hive Academy yielded no results. The machine was gone, and there were no students left. Robin and I think that they may have a second base, and were planning on an inside attack. If we find out where there second base is, sending in another agent isn't going to accomplish anything. Besides, Siphon got all the information he was sent to gather, and more."

An idea pops into my head. "I think that the extra information he got, like the floor plans and dossiers, were planted. Jinx took some time last night and went over some of the profiles, and a lot of the information on students that she worked directly with was misleading, if not entirely false. And the fact that they were planning on moving to a second base could be why they so readily gave up the floor plans with this one. I don't think we'll be getting that much the next time."

Jinx interjects. "I also did a little research on Obsidiant's powers, comparing them to the parts and pieces they had us working on for our class project. Now, the machine that was housing his powers was obviously part of it, but none of the parts Gyzmo, Mammoth, Billy, SeeMore, or I worked on had anything to do with that. I think there's more to what we helped make."

Robin has calmed down enough to take point again. "That's... disconcerting. We can only assume that if there was more to the machine, that they must have been making some kind of weapon-"

"-a bomb." Another voice interrupts him, softer, more intense. Obsidiant looks up. "They were talking about it, Slade was talking about it when he had me captive. He's planning on making a negative energy bomb. And with as much power as I fed into that thing, even with the chunk that Siphon destroyed, he probably has enough to hold Gotham, Steel City, Metropolis, even this place, Jump City, hostage for any amount they want. That stuff will slowly kill anyone in it's blast radius. Especially if they weaponize it." He looks around at everyone giving him scared looks. "But that's just worse case scenario! Slade was torturing me, he probably just said that to scare more energy out of me. Ignore what I'm saying, I'm just a giant pessimist."

Siphon adds in, "There's a Visine for that."

Robin shakes his head. "We are going to have to take that into account. Look, we don't have anything we can act on right now, but when we do, we're going to need everything we can get. I'll be calling the Auxillary Titans and East. Siphon, Reflex-"

"Yeah, boss?" we ask in unison.

"Get the Red Jackets together. We may need all the help we can get.

Later that evening, Siphon, Raven, Jinx and I are all gathered around the kitchen table, getting in a late night snack and a round of cards before going to bed.

"You know, with all the extra people we're calling into the city, maybe we should have some of the Jackets go help out the Titans that aren't coming in. We don't want to focus everyone in one spot. Look, this may be what their plan is, to get all of us together, and find a way to take us all out at once." Siphon voices his ideas, and I completely agree.

"You're right. We'll have Kunoichi-" Siphon gives a shudder "Powerhouse, and Freeboard come here. Gothica, Portal, and Proteus hang back at base, and disperse their numbers as they see fit."

Jinx and Raven give us looks. "Who are all these people?" Jinx asks.

We fill them in on Gothica, Powerhouse, and Kunoichi. "Freeboard is an old friend of ours from high school that I made contact with after I learned the team had been formed," I add in. "He's a technological whiz kid with too much money and an obsession for extreme sports. He uses this tricked-out hoverboard as a weapon, and he's not a bad hand-to-hand fighter, either."

Siphon's turn. "Proteus and Portal are friends of Gothica's. Proteus can change his density, and to a degree, the density of objects around him, at will. Portal, he's just like he sounds. He Makes a few magic hand signs, throws down a portal, and can make it go wherever he wants. As long as he has a good idea where it's going, and it's not showing up, you know, IN people. Although he did try that once to a bird. There are just some things you can't unsee."

"Yeah, Powerhouse told me about that, asked if I wanted to see the video."

Raven just gives us looks. "You know to many weird people."

"This coming from the girl who's beauty mirrors lead into her mind," I remark.

"I'm going to kill beast boy for telling you that story."

"If Terra doesn't kill him first." They all give me more weird looks, so I fill them in on the last few days. "I wouldn't be surprised if they broke up tomorrow."

Raven gets an unreadable expression on her face, and goes back to her meal. Jinx is rapt with attention at the gossip, and Siphon looks like he could care less.

We throw around some more ideas, then head for bed. Siphon and Raven break off and head for their rooms, Siphon and Obsidiant bunking in a spare guest room.

Jinx and I get to my door, and I give her a goodnight kiss, and move to go in, but she grabs my arm. "Hey," she starts, giving me a weird look. "Do you think, maybe I could crash in your room? I really don't want to bunk with Starfire, there are just some things a girl can't handle."

I have to laugh at that. "Sure, no problem. Just don't expect anything weird"

She gives me a curious glance. "We'll see." She walks into the room, the door closing behind her.

I stop for a second in the hall, and heave a small sigh. "Siphon, we sure do lead interesting lives," I mutter, and step into my room, to whatever awaits me there.


	12. The WHole Can of Worms

Chapter 12

I now officially hate stankball. It is the most disgusting sport in the multiverse, including peeing-for-distance. And while I have no problem with throwing heavy objects at people, I do not like those heave objects to include a large wad of old gym socks.

Beast Boy's old gym socks.

They've cultured.

As I teleport away from yet another stank-assault, reemerging in the kitchen, I can't help but think that Cyborg and BB have way too much time on their hands. Even with this lapse in activity from the Hive, they can't expect me to be that bored. I immediately go for the fridge, and, pulling out the last half of a submarine sandwich, I move to eat it in the living room, and realize I'm not the only one in the room. I actually take a moment to survey my surroundings. I take notice of Powerhouse, Freeboard, and an older teen in a simple black t and navy blue jeans. I take a couple of steps towards them to say hello, and am almost immediately barred by two female obstacles: one, being a dark-haired ninja popping _out_ of the floor at me, the other being a smaller, black-haired girl in a gothic lolita dress clamping onto my arm. The former, however, is the only one that actually talks to me.

"Hi, you must be Reflex. I'm-"

"-creepy stalker ninja, got it."

"_Kunoichi._ I'd say it's nice to meet you, but so far it hasn't been. Look, Siphon and Powerhouse both vouch for you as a good person, and I'd like to give you a chance. Gothica, there," she said, pointing at the young girl attached to my right arm, "seems to hero worship you, and I have a sort of fondness for her, so please, do your best not to ruin her view of you. And from what I hear, you're already trying. What's this rumor I heard from, what was his name, Beast Kid-"

"-Beast Boy-"

"Sure, right, whatever. Look, he told me that you and Jinx, well..." As she's talking, I can feel Gothica's grip on my arm loosening, and she starts to slide away.

"Look, we shared a room, yeah, big deal. Nothing happened. I slept on the floor, and she slept on the bed. I like, her, yes. But that doesn't mean I'm stupid enough to sleep with someone I've dated for like, two days. Well, a week now, but you get the idea." Gothica's grip strengthens on my arm, and I relax a bit. Maybe having this little fangirl around will be good for me.

Kunoichi regards me for a moment. "Well, maybe you're right. But still, you could stand to be a little more careful." She starts to walk away, and adds, "You never know when you're making an impression." She punctuates the absurdity of her statement by sliding back into the floor. I pause for a moment, and look over at the young girl on my arm. She stares back up at me with a starry glaze on her eyes.

"Um, hi?" I greet her cautiously, unsure of how to approach my new... attachment. She sighs a little, and leans into my arm. I get the distinct impression that she's not going to let me go.

My attachment and I go to greet the rest of the team, and notice that Siphon is also sitting with them. We sit in with the rest of the group, just in time to hear Siphon tell some stories about us in high school. Yay, me. I try and sit down as comfortably as my newest accommodations allow, and try to catch up with the conversation.

The new guy in street clothes gives me an appraising look, but doesn't say anything. He nods his head and smiles at me, seeing Gothica latched on my arm, and returns his attention to Siphon. He's just opening up on what I assume to be another embarrassing event in my life, so I try and divert the conversation. "So, how the hell did you guys get her so fast? Last I heard, Siphon, most of our new 'group' were on the other side of the country."

He jabs a thumb in the direction of the new guy. "Reflex, meet Portal. This guy's basically you version Beta." To demonstrate, Portal opens a hole in, well, the _air,_ and pulls out a cheeseburger.

"Hot off the grill from that burger place on Lexington," Portal explains. "Oh, don't worry, I have no intentions of trying to replace you or fill your roll or anything. I'm strictly utility." He doesn't say much after that, and Siphon looks ready to open with another story, so I turn my attention to Freeboard, who looks to be actively trying to lose consciousness. "So, FreeBie, how you been?"

"Seriously, stop calling me that," he growls, but he's grinning. "Good. My parents are entering into an agreement with Wayne Enterprises on a new medical division, and that means a lot more cash flow for us. Not only that, but after I graduate high school, I've got an apprenticeship at Star labs lines up with one of their chief engineers. They're setting me up with a scholarship for my micro-engineering degree."

"You could have just said 'good', you know. I didn't care before France, and I don't now. How's Emily holding up?" Emily is Freeboard's older sister. Emily is also hot. She makes Jennifer Garner look like wallpaper. She's also the lead singer of her own band, is working on her second modeling contract, and is light years out of my league. Plus, I'm taken now. Did I mention she's hot?

"She's good. Cyco Records wants her to put out another album by the end of the year, and she has like, a photo shoot a day, but she's good. She keeps asking me about when I'm going to introduce her to Bruce Wayne. I'VE never even met the guy." He grumbles a little. He has an open sense of apathy for Bruce, on top of a hero-worship issue. The kid's messed up.

"Yeah, yeah, billionaire Playboys for the lose. Get over it," Powerhouse grumbles. "God, you people talk a lot. Can't we just talk about this mission and go home? The sooner we bag this Riddler jerk, the sooner I can go back to picking off bank robbers. I'm not real big on the super-villain, thing, you know?"

And, as if on cue, and to smite him for his words, the Titan alarm goes off with it's incessant siren and red flashing lights. The rest of the table, sans Siphon, flinches horribly.

"Get over it," I shout over the alarm.

"Well this is new." Raven remarks on the quite unusual, yet slightly horrifying, scene before us. You've got the usual panic in the streets, yes. People running for their lives, cars wrecked at random street corners, the works. Then there's the giant snake in the middle of the road. I mean choke-a-zilla huge. It's currently tearing through a now-abandoned apartment building, with it's creator sitting on it's head. Oh, and did I mention it has a skull for a head? Yeah. A big human skull. And weird wings at the skull's base.

Oh, and the whole thing's made out of fire. Yeah. That, too.

The snake coils up in front of us, and the guy posing on it's head jumps down, no doubt to monologue an introduction. "All right, Titans!" The guy yells as he falls, and when he lands, we get a good look at him. Leather biker's vest, cut-off jeans, biker gloves, leather boots, red bandana, and a giant flaming skull tattooed on his chest. "Ah'm getting' tired o' smahin' stuff tha' don' smash back!"

He shouts, when he's five feet away, in a really thick Irish accent. "This 'ol city's full o' arseways folk! All these bowsies ever blather on aboot is whether or no' their clothes fit, or talkin' about 'ow banjanxed their lives are! Tis' enuff ta' drive a man t'the black stuff! Now, Kid Infernity's gonna teach some'o these feckin' eejits what a fierce thing the real world really is!"

I take a look around at most of the team, seeing if anyone other than me understood that. By the combination of confused, exasperated, and frustrated looks this guy's getting, I'd guess not.

I laugh a little and take point, shrugging it off. "Ok, points to the new guy for the witty banter, most of these jackeens probably haven't got a baldy what your on about, but either way, your a bleeding hypocrite."

He raises an eyebrow at me, and his snake seems to have dissapeared. "Jackeens? Don' tell me yer a biffo?"

"Nope, red-blooded American," I respond. I try to keep him talking. "But these buck eejit's don't know oirish from blarney, so it'd be murder trying to prove a point to them the way you're stabbing at it."

"I guess ya got a point. Right then, on with th'fightin'!" And he proceeds to huck small fireballs at me. Freaking awesome. I teleport behind him, and move to punch him in the head, but he points a hand behind him, and blasts me half a block down. It's at that point I hear Robin yell, "Titans, Go!", and the large roar of several individual war cries as the team finally springs into action. I stand up and glance over in time to see Infernity shoot off a few patches of flame into the air, then blast the ground a couple of times. Then, I take a running start, as I notice the flames on the ground turn into smaller versions of the flaming snakezilla he started with, and the flames in the air take the shape of little flaming bats.

Terra tries to out the airbourne hellions with chunks of gravel, but the rocks explode on contact, and now they look like they have flaming pieces of rock in them. Oh, yay.

"Way to go, brick monkey!" I shout, and take a few swings at Kid Infernity. One sharp hit lands on his jaw, and he goes flying. I move to follow up and knock him out, but one of the snakes snaps me in the back, and chases after me. I have enough time while I'm airbourne to see that starbolts, dark energy, and birdarangs either don't do anything, or make them angrier.

Almost immediately after landing, another snake leaps at my face, but a blade pops out of the ground, followed by a girl, and cuts the thing's head off. It goes poof. No big explosion, no awesome vanquishing effect, just poof. I've been saved by a poofing.

Kunoichi helps me up, and I see what appears to be a large flaming wolf dodging between Siphon and Powerhouse, their blasts not having much effect. I whip around to yell for Robin, but he and Jinx are focusing on Infernity, and Beast Boy and FreeBoard have their own wolves to deal with. I take a deep breath, and glance at Kunoichi, just in time to see her give me a look that says _'Please don't do it'._

_Too late,_ I think to myself, and shout, "Off with their heads! Off with their heads!" I pop over to Robin, and have him pass me a couple of birdarangs. I click them together to make that weird sword thing he designed, and start hacking at the now small army of snakes. They poof away, and I hear a bunch of poofs above me. I look up to see Raven using weird telekinetic square blade things to behead the flaming bastards. Another poof, and I look ahead in time to dodge a flying manhole, which appears to have been used in the beheading of a wolf. A few more poofs later, a good dousing with a fire hydrant, and a few choice kicks, and Infernity is on the ground.

He just stares up at me, grinning, hands tied behind his back. "Well done, well done, idn't it? You jackeens might have spoiled me craic, but the Riddley's gonna ruin yer whole feckin' city!"

Robin dives at him, and picks him up by the collar. "What do you know about the Riddler? Talk!"

He just laughs like a crazy person, and disappears in a cloud of fire.

In his wake is a lone envelope, with a green question mark emblazoned on it.

"Great, more freakin' riddles!" Beast Boy groans. He, Raven, Robin, and Jinx are all sitting around at the table, looking over the newest mind-breaker. Robin decided it was best for the teams to separate into two groups. Portal has taken Siphon, Powerhouse, Starfire, Cyborg, Kunoichi and Freeboard to a temporary base on the far side of town to dig up more clues and stay on alert for more attacks. The rest are staying behind at the tower to monitor that cell, Titans East and the other Titans and Red Jackets, and to work on putting the bigger picture together. Obsidiant, it turns out, went home when Portal brought everyone in this morning. Gothica volunteered to stay behind at the Tower to help the newly divided team, but most of us agree she doesn't want to be separated from me just yet. It helps that she hasn't moved more that 3 feet away from me since I came back to the tower covered in burns.

We're working on making dinner, and surprisingly, the little stalker's quite a good cook. "So what's the thing say, anyway?"

Raven just sighs, "You're not going to like it."

"Hit me."

Another sigh."

_At my stroke there is no hour,_

_at the end of a day that's marked in death._

_In the place minds go to sour,_

_your city watches it's dying breath._

"

"Can this guy get any crazier?" Jinx asks no one in particular.

Robin pulls out a pen and paper. "Ok, let's break this down line by line. _At my stroke there is no hour.."_

"Probably means midnight," I answer for him.

"How do you know that?" Raven asks me.

"Military time. Midnight reads as 0 o'clock."

"Right," adds Robin, making a few notes. "Now, _at the end of a day that's marked in death,"_

Raven answers for him. "November first. That's All Hallow's Day. Also the day of the dead."

Beast boy shudders, "Way creepy. So, like, this dude's gonna do whatever at the stroke of midnight at the end of the first of November?"

"It appears so," Jinx answers, and keeps reading. "_In the place where minds go to sour," _she trails off.

"Arkham Asylum," Robin finally answers. "It's the only institution in this area. He's broken out before, he and Slade can probably break in."

Raven reads the last part off. "_Your city watches it's dying breath."_

"What does that mean?" Gothica asks me. I shrug.

"No idea kid," I tell her, and ruffle her hair a little.

Beast Boy pipes up, "Well, you can see your breath when it's really cold, right? Maybe he's going to freeze the city or something."

"But why do it from Arkham Asylum?" Jinx asks.

Something clicks in my head. "Because that's where he's storing the bomb."

Robin jumps up. "What bomb?"

"Obsidiant's negative energy bomb. Part of his power's effect is to slow down the speed of any molecules in it's radial effect, removing any heat in the area. After Cyborg ran some tests on Obsidiant, he figured that with enough power output, and focusing enough energy into a localized area, you could almost hit 0 degrees Kelvin."

"Calvin? What's that?"

"Not Calvin, you dummy, Kelvin," Gothica interrupts him. We just stare at her. "0 degrees Kelvin is the lowest possible temperature in the physical world. It's the point at which all matter stops moving, permanently."

The rest of the team just kind of looks at her, slack-jawed. "She can also cook, clean, and call Beast Boy names," I chime in.

Everyone's silent for a second before Raven adds, "I like her."


	13. Robin vs Reflex

Chapter 13

You know, you'd be surprised at how much downtime the Teen Titans really have. All the fights and crimes and mysteries we solve? Yeah, like, a week between them. And now that The Riddler and Slade are running a large portion of the criminal activity in Jump City, we actually have a date for the next attack. And it's three weeks away. Not three days, not three hours where we run around the city in a mad chase trying to disarm some crazy bomb, we actually have a date and time for this thing. And we've already had Arkham Asylum searched brick by brick, thanks to our restless leader and his JLA connections. There's nothing there that we can act on yet. Tie in that any other clues we find just tell us what we already know, and now we get to play the waiting game. With, Raven, Robin, Beast Boy, Jinx, Gothica, and myself.

No words can express the boredom. Considering that my trouble making girlfriend, my pocket-stalker, the practical joker, the goth chick, and the egotistical leader are my only housemates, and they're bored too? Oh, man alive, it's been interesting.

"Why do they even let you out of your cage?! Get back here, you little grass stain!" Jinx shrieks at Beast Boy, as he runs off with what I assume to be her diary.

"I always thought Kid Flash was kidding about the unicorn thing!" BB yells as he runs past me, then turns into a German Shepard with the book in his mouth, running down the other hallway. Raven has resumed her once-usual post of reading poetry on the couch, Robin (surprise, surprise) is camped out on the computer, searching for whatever other clues he can find. We've all tried explaining to him that it's pretty cut and dry from here on out, but will he listen? No. Especially not when Slade's involved. Gothica has been spending the last half hour the fine art of sewing, so I can start working on my own costume, instead of sending it off to my cousin every other week. And I have learned three things: I suck, it's harder than it looks, and needles hurt more than I remember.

I'm just about to swear off fine arts for good, and go cook something for lunch, when Robin suddenly stands up and barks out, "Everyone to combat practice, now!" Interestingly enough, nobody moves. Except for the moving they were already doing. "Didn't you hear me?! I said-"

"We heard what you said, man. We're just ignoring you," I inform him. Not the best of ideas. In seconds he's an inch from my face.

"You have a problem with me, Reflex?!"

I don't even bother looking him in the eye. "Yeah, it's about a thousand decibles and comes from your mouth. Seriously, yelling at us? Really?"

He makes a move to punch me in the face, and I teleport behind him in a crouch, knock his legs out from under him with my arm, use my left hand to catch his cape, the right to catch his belt, and hurl him into the couch. Then I pop in right above him, and land with my knees on his chest, grabbing both his wrists. "Don't. Attack. Me. I've seen you fight. Hell, I've seen you go all out against enemies that didn't need it," He tries to wrestle me off, but I put more pressure into my right knee, leaning on his ribs. "And against me. I know your moves, Robin, you're almost textbook jujitsu and kung fu. If not for the fancy gadgets, you'd be THE most predictable hero in the world. Hell, even with them you're pretty close." I hop off, and straighten the couch.

He rights himself, and starts yelling again. "You think just because you have a few good moves and a superpower you're better than me? I suppose you'll want to start leading the team then, right?"

"As if," I turn around, and he's trying to stare me down. "I'm no good at yelling or attacking my friends. I'm just not cut out for it. You on the other hand? That seems to be all you do? How many teammates have you attacked, Robin? At some point or another, you've taken arms against everyone in this building. So you know what? Maybe the combat room is a good idea. I can finally start pounding some sense into that villain-filled head of yours."

"I'd like to see you try," Robin growls. Raven stands up and moves between us.

"Don't start, both of you. We need to keep a clear head if we're going to make it through the next few weeks. Don't you two get it? The Riddler wants to see how long we can hold out on doing nothing, before we start making trouble ourselves. And knowing Slade, this was his idea, too. SO both of you need to relax and slow down, if we're going to make it out of this month alive. Or even in one piece."

I give her a look that says 'I know what I'm doing,' and she returns it with a 'No, you don't' glare. "Raven, trust me. Go ahead, read my mind. I know what I'm doing, and what I'm going to do," I add, giving Robin a taunting grin. Raven puts a hand on my forehead, and I get really dizzy, and really focused all at the same time. It's like I can think perfectly, but everything else doesn't want to work. So I start thinking about the plan I've hatched in the last few minutes, and I hear Raven's voice in my head: "_You know this isn't going to end well. I really don't think this is a great idea."_

_ "You got a better one?"_ I regain my focus, and notice that BB, Jinx and Gothica are all huddled in a group behind Raven.

Robin just sneers at me, "So, you going to back down because a girl told you to?"

"No, sorry, but I can see where you're coming from. Isn't that how things work with you and Starfire?" I give him my best arrogant look, and it sets him off.

"Combat room! NOW!"

"Are you sure there's nothing I can say to keep you from doing this?" Jinx asks me.

"Don't worry, I've planned all of this out. I even have the perfect battle strategy."

She kind of shudders, and asks, "And what would that be?"

"I'll win! Just as long as I don't lose. See? It's fullproof!"

"Don't you mean foolproof? And no, it's not."

"No, I mean fullproof. Nothing is foolproof, Robin's proved that."

"So what's fullproof?"

"It's when something's so full of win and awesome that nothing can go wrong! Unless some fool messes it up." I pose for dramatic effect, and can practically hear Robin seething at the other end of the room. He's got Raven and BB on his corner, Beast Boy yelling words of encouragement and unhelpful advice, Raven just giving me more looks, and trying not to get involved. Gothica is in my corner, holding a water bottle and towel, fretting over the entire ordeal. I wave her over, and put my hands on her shoulders. "It's ok. I know exactly what I'm doing. Everything's going to be fine."

"That's what I'm worried about," she squeaks, and moves to hide behind Jinx.

Beast Boy takes a post as the announcer for his fight, and turns on a large computer display, with the rest of the Titans onscreen. Lord knows they'd want to see this. "In the Red corner, weighing in at somewhere around 150 lbs, the Boy Wonder, the martial arts genius, the leader of the Teen Titans, Robin! And in the Purple corner-"

"Thanks, BB!" I shout to him, he just waves at me.

"In the purple corner, weighing in at 195 and 6'1, the flickering menace, the free dancing fighter, the one, the only, Reflex!"

I hear shouting and cheers form the screen when BB announces both names, and guess that Robin has already talked to them about this. Probably made it sound like his idea.

"How about making this interesting?" Robin shouts at me.

"What do you mean?" I thought he might try something.

"If I win... If I win you have to leave the Titans."

I blink at that one. Not what I was expecting, but I can still make it work. "Fine," I answer. Jinx and Gothica both start to protest, as do a few other members from onscreen. I look up, and see that it's more than the other half of the team now. Auxiliary Titans, East, Red Jackets, everyone's watching this fight. Perfect. I cut them all off halfway through their protests. "Fine. But if I win, I get to declare the new leader of the Teen Titans, to act until Riddler and Slade are behind bars." More protests at this, but Robin just holds up a hand.

"Agreed. Now, let's get this over with. I have plans for your room."

"And I have plans for you," I tell him, and shake him up a little bit. "Don't hold back, use everything you have. I want to know I can beat you at your best."

"You better be ready for it."

Beast Boy yells out over the intercom, "Ready, Set, FIGHT!"

Robin runs straight for me, pulling out his staff, and jumps into the air, bringing it down with everything he's got. I block with both arms, grabbing the free end of the staff, and roll backwards with the blow. When my back hits the ground, my foot hits his chest and I kick him into the air behind me. He hits the ground running, and I move into a handstand, blocking his first blow with my feet, then teleport into the air above him. I look down to see him swing wildly behind him, trying to predict my next move, and I land with my hand on his head, swinging down and kneeing him in the chest. He gets thrown backward, and as soon as My feet hit the ground, I charge at him. I take a few swings at him, and he blocks with his staff.

I take a leap into the air, and kick at his chest a couple of time before I hit the ground, but none of them get through. The next few minutes is a flurry of blocked hits and dodged blows from both sides, and take a second to pause, catching our breath, getting ready for the next barrage. We charge at each other simultaneously, and my first punch breaks his staff in half, in the spot I've been landing all my blows. He's taken aback by the break, so I take the opportunity to grab the front of his shirt, and thrown him as far as I can. He lands on his back, but handsprings to his feet, pulling out another staff. I pick up the two broken pieces he left on the ground, and look up in time to see him throw some flashbangs at me, I slide my goggles on just in time to prevent most of the glare, then jump backwards to dodge another strike from his staff.

I tap my goggles rapidly until I have a feed into the room, and teleport away. I land in front of the camera pointing to our arena, in time to see Robin spinning around and screaming for me to come out. I pop in to his left, because he's right handed, and land a blow to his temple with the end of my weapon. He takes a second to recover, but I don't give it to him, I run at him as soon as he stands up, and crack him in the jaw with what is now my short staff. The next blow knocks his weapon out of his hand, and I pivot on one foot to spin around behind him, while spinning the staff in my hand to line up with my palm, and chop him on the back of the neck with the edge of the weapon.

He goes limp just in time to prevent getting knocked out, and hits the ground with a smoke bomb as soon as he thinks he's far enough away from me. I use the video feed to pop into the rafters, and see him use a grappling hook to do the same. He fires another grappling hook at my ankle, and I just can't pop away fast enough, there's now too much smoke to see where he's going. I get thrown across the room the the hook, and land against the wall. I hear something go crack, but don't know what, and really don't care. I take the time it would take for him to get here to turn on the heat vision in my goggles, and close the top of the neck to my trench coat around my mouth to filter some of the smoke. I notice a red and yellow blur charging at me through a see of blue, and I jump as far up as I can, grabbing a heated water pipe, the only thing I can see, and swing myself on top of it. I switch through my imaging to find one that works, and settle on night vision, which works well enough now that some of the smoke's cleared. Looking down, I see another grappling hook pointed at me, and block it with a staff.

Now that I have enough footing to do so, I use the short staff to start a tug of war with Robin, and let go just as he pulls down with everything he's got. I drop, and follow the staff down, so that when he notices I'm not holding onto it, I bring both hands down on top of his head. He hits the ground with a grunt, ans stays there.

After the smoke clears, and everyone can see Robin on the ground and me leaning on the wall, nobody makes a sound for awhile. Then, stammering, Beast Boy announces me as the winner, but I don't pay attention. Raven gathers up Robin, and Jinx and Gothica make their way to me just in time to catch me as I collapse.

I wake up to most of the team standing over me, minus Robin, and from my surroundings, deduce that I must be in one of the beds in the infirmary. I try to sit up, but a blinding pain in my chest lets loose a howl that makes the people around me jump, and I collapse back onto the bed.

"You idiot," Jinx mutters at me. I notice she has tears in her eyes. "Don't scare us like that."

Cyborg comes into view, and I move my head enough to see that the rest of the Titans are here, but none of my teammates, expect Gothica. "After the fight, we figured we needed to redistribute our numbers again, so we have all of the original Titans here, plus you, Jinx, and Gothica. The rest of the Red Jackets are spread out, teaming up with Auxiliary Titans, and East went home."

I look around but still don't see Robin. "Where's the other guy?" I ask, and they kind of smirk at me, but Raven answers or them.

"After you two finished beating the hell out of each other, we put you both to bed. He's still unconscious, you kind of tore him up. But you've got two broken rids, and you dislocated your shoulder trying to break Robin's skull."

"Trying? I guess I didn't break anything of his."

"His jaw, and he's got a major concussion, but nothing he won't recover from in a week or two. The great news is, you're going to need the same amount of bed rest."

"Why is that great-" I stop, seeing the rest of the team grinning at me. "Oh no. No way. You mean I have to stay in the same room as him for two weeks?!"

Gothica finally comes into view, and lays a cold towel on my head. It's not until she does that that I notice I'm also running a fever.

"Oh, yeah," Beast Boy adds, "you two muscle heads beat on each other so hard you both have high levels of heatstroke, and Robin's smoke bomb did some internal damage to both of you. Also, you have a burn on your right hand that you're on painkillers for for being stupid enough to grab a hot metal pipe with your bare hands You're both in for a hell of a ride getting better."

I decide this is all a little too much to take in at once, so I decide now is a good time to pass out again.


	14. Insult to Injury

Chapter 14

I'd like to say I'm in hell. I'd like to say there is no other place I'd rather be than here. Like, Bermuda, or the Shores of Aera, something like that. But to be perfectly honest, I'm quite content. I'm totally high on painkillers, I have my own little maid tending to everything I need, and I don't even have to ask, and my girlfriend hasn't left the room in days. I'm kinda happy right now. Especially since my roommate can't talk, because I broke his jaw.

Life is good. And it stays this way for a few days. For the first week I drift in and out of consciousness, and I vaguely remember eating, holding minimal conversations, and a lot of sleeping.

And then, suddenly, I wake up one day, and it's hell. The painkillers have run out, and I can feel bone regrowing, the skin on my hand healing over, all of the regenerative processes of my body are brought to the forefront of my consciousness, searing pain and agony coursing through me like lifeblood, as though there were no reprieve from my own existence.

At least, this is how I so eloquently describe it t my attending, Gothica. And for some reason she's writing it down. It's weird. "Why would you record any of this?" I try to lean over to read her notebook, but the 'lifeblood of pain' comes screaming back to me.

"Because it makes for good, depressing poetry. Raven got me started on it, and it's kind of fun. Makes you feel better. And besides, that's probably the most poetic thing you'll ever say, and it needs to be remembered."

"Hey, I'm not dying yet. It just feels like I am," I groan, trying to settle into a position that I can't feel my ribs in. I turn to my morphine drip, and find that it's completely empty. Gods dammit. I look over to the side, and find a small bottle with some Vicatin in it. I move to down a few of the pills, but Gothica moves the bottle. "Hey. Gimme that. I needs me my bot-hurting-no-more."  
"Oh no you don't. We need to talk. And the others want to talk to you as well. That little stunt you pulled, we need to know why. And know that you're our new leader, we need some orders."

"Apparently poetry isn't the only thing you learned from Raven. And I never said I was-" I let out a scream as my ribs creak from the strain of talking as much as I have, and come close to passing out. Gothica smacks me in the face a few times. "No sleeping. I said we need to talk."

"You go first," I groan.

"Well, to start, you're an idiot. Taking on Robin at his best? I don't know how the hell you won."

"Neither do I, to be honest."

"I'm not kidding. There were betting odds of 100 to 1 that he'd kick your ass, and they weren't in your favor. I won a lot off you."

My hand starts to sear again, so I press it against my cold towel. "Glad to hear that someone supported me. But either way, I won, so know he can't kick me off the team, and he doesn't get to lead the rest of this mission."

"And you're going to? That should be interesting."

"I never said I was going to be, so stop making that assumption. You know what I say about assumptions."

"They make an arse out of you?" She smiles, and replaces my now-warm cloth with an ice-cold one. "So if you're not going to lead us, who is?"

"You'll find out when everyone else does, so what else?"

"We need a new team name. Red Jackets? Seriously?"

"Since when did you care?"

"Let's just say a lot has happened since you passed out. You were in and out of it for a week, so I didn't have a lot to do. And I wasn't about to leave you, so I started looking for stuff to do when I wasn't taking care of you, and I ended up following Raven around, because she was the only one that didn't scare me at first."

"Why would any of the other guys scare you?"

"Well, Jinx used to be a bad guy, and I'm not entirely okay with you dating her, but that's another issue. Starfire is just too freakin' happy. Beast Boy turns into really big animals that I don't like. Cyborg is big. And Robin is crazy. Raven is quiet, soulfull, and a lot of fun to talk to. She taught me how to meditate, we read poetry, she's a lot of fun when she's not being an antisocial emo kid."

"And somewhere in all of that did she find your 'on' switch?"

"Kind of. We did a lot of meditation, and she taught me how to find my inner emotions, and deal with them, and, long story short, I'm not really afraid of people anymore. I still can't use my powers, but I'm better with people."

"Ok... back to the team name thing. What would you suggest?"

"Well, I have a few suggestions," she turns a few pages in her book, and starts off, "how about the Bloodcoats?"

"Sounds too villainy. Or third-wave emo punk. Next."

"Um, ok. Avalon?"

"We're not uberpowered enough to use a name like that. Next?"

"Young Guardians?"

I pause on that. "That sounds good. Do we have a newsletter or something? We should put that out there. Let Siphon know."

"That one was actually his idea."

* * *

"Figures."

After Gothica left to tell the rest of 'our' team the new team name, the Titans made their way into the room, and proceeded to call me an idiot as soon as they noticed that I was coherent enough to understand it.

"Why would you challenge him to battle if you thought you would lose?"

"Dude, you got wailed on.."

"You're a moron, man, none of us would ever go one-on-one against him."

"I told you it was a really bad idea."

I just glare at them. "Gee, thanks for the support. I'm sure my recovery will go so much faster with those comforting words of inspiration and hope. You guys suck. And besides, I was planning on losing, but this works, too. Give me a moment and I'll explain everything," I tell them. I hear scraping of metal on the floor, and everyone kind of drops out of view. I assume they've pulled up chairs. "What, now?"

Raven states matter-of-factly, "That's why we're here, right?"

"Crap on a stick, alright. I'll agree it wasn't a good plan, I put it together in like, 30 seconds-"

"What?!" Cyborg yells at me.

"Ok, dude, broken, not deaf. Anyway, my idea was originally just to get him to cool down by letting him wail on me. But when he said I had to leave the team if I lost, I thought, screw that, and came up with a new plan on the spot."

"Which, I'm willing to bet, is worse than the first one," Beast Boy chimes in.

"I would stop betting against me, you guys didn't do so well last time. So, the new plan was, to find a way to get him off the case for awhile, get him to calm down, maybe blow off some steam in the weight room every day. So I came up with my half of the arrangement."

"Which is where you said you would be declared our temporary leader if you won, yes?" Starfire asks.

"No. Did none of you listen to me? I said I would get to declare the leader for our team until Riddler and Slade are behind bars. I never said that leader would be me. SO I've been trying to think of the most logical person to make our leader until this whole mess is resolved and we can go back to doing piddly little missions again. I miss that."

"So who did you decide on?" Cyborg asks me.

"I haven't yet, but I'll let you know when I do. Right now, it's between Raven and Cyborg, but I can't make a decision between the two yet."

"Dude, why them?" Beast Boy complains.

"Because Robin is already not a choice, Jinx doesn't know the team well enough, I don't trust Terra, Starfire doesn't have the personality type for it, Gothica has no powers or battle experience, and you? No. Just No. To Gotham and back, N-O."

"Jerk," he grumbles. I talk semantics with the team for awhile, then realize I haven't heard anything from Robin's side of the room all day. "Is Robin ok over there? I haven't heard him groan at me in awhile."

"We had to put him under while we realigned his jawbone, which we couldn't do for the last few days because of the concussion you gave him. He's gonna be out for a day or two.

"And where Brickface Barbie?"

"She's with the now Young Guardians, acting as an emissary for the Titans."

"Oh, that can't be going well."

"It's fine. She's staying in her own place in Red City."

"Red City?"

"Apparently that's what your group calls it's home town, now."

"Alright, alright. Come back tonight, I'll have a new leader for you by then."

They saunter off, and as the Vicatin wears off, I realize I forgot to ask them for more morphine.

It's going to be a long afternoon.

I wake up a couple of hours later to Jinx opening the infirmary door, and realize that I'd passed out from the pain. I look over to my empty oorphine drip, and see that someone has replenished my supply. Jinx takes a seat next to me, and sighs.

"We need to talk."

"Please don't call me an idiot. I've had quite a lot of that today."

She smiles and shakes her head. "No, it's not that. It's, well..." She trails off uncomfortably, and I start to wish that I had a morphine drip for my emotions. This can't end well.

"Well?" I ask quietly, expecting the worst.

"I don't think I can go out with you anymore." Bingo. Got it in one. I've been in enough relationships in the last couple of years to tell when I'm being dumped. "It's, well to be perfectly honest, it's you."

That's a new one. "Me? What'd I do?"

"A lot, really. You're too reckless. You don't think ahead for anything. You only make plans when something happens that needs a plan then and there. You have no foresight. And I don't think you can focus on just one person at a time, not the way a relationship would require you too. I just don't think we're a good match."

I feel little daggers of emo stabbing in at me from all angles with every sentence. "So, what? Are you going to leave? I mean, I'm not going to try to change your mind or guilt you into staying or anything, but, what're you gonna do now?"

"I talked to the Titans East, and they said they had room for me over there, so I'm going to stay with the, until this Riddler thing resolves. I'll work out the rest between now and then."

I sigh and lean back into the bed. "Well, have a good one. I can't really say anything now except goodbye."

She just stares at me with tears in her eyes. "That's it? Goodbye? You can't think of anything else?"

"Look, I told you when you came here that I wouldn't try to tell you what to do. If this was your decision, then I'm going to have to respect that. And if you're going to the other side of the country just so you don't have to be on the same team with me, then there's obviously nothing else I could say to make this any easier for you, than saying thanks, and goodbye." She stands up, and makes for the door. Right before she leaves she tells me, "You're an idiot."

I sigh as she walks out the door, and say to an empty room, save for a sleeping Robin, "I know."

The rest of the Titans come in later that night, including Gothica, who fills me in that Jinx has already left.

They all gather around me, sitting in their little chairs, waiting for my decision, and right now I could really care less. I lay back in my bed, close my eyes, and try to think for a few moments. Beast Boy and Starfire pester me abut who have I decided to be the leader for the next month, and I tell them, "I haven't really had a chance to think about it, you guys," amid their protests, I explain Jinx dumping me. It doesn't have a lot of effect.

Beast Boy just stands up and glares at me. "I bet you're just doing this to have something to hold over our heads, right? Dude, you need to find a better way to entertain yourself."

"Sit down, beanpole, that's not what this is about."

Starfire takes an opportunity to voice her opinion. "Well, I do not think that the role of our leader should be left in the hands of one so self-centered and rude!"

"Starfire, sit down," Raven asks her. "He's telling the truth. I don't think this is something we should be bothering him with tonight. For now, let's just follow the normal chain of command until he makes a decision."

Cyborg shrugs. "I just want to know so we can get back on track. Either way, we can't operate without a leader, and even if Robin was still in that position, he's in no condition to give orders anyway."

"Oh, sure, be logical, both of you. That makes my decision so much easier," I grin at them. "Look, I just need some more time to tell. Both of you would make good captains, and for similar reasons, it's basically whoever would be the biggest liability. And right now, that's kind of hard to determine."

They all shrug, and move for the door. Beast Boy is the first one to reach the doorway, and I hear him mutter, "_Cyborg was right, he should be the leader, he's the normal chain of command anyway_."

_ "_Hold it!" I shout at them. "Get back here, I've got a decision."

They all look at each other. Raven just asks me, "Are you sure? We can come back if-"

"It's you," I interrupt her. "I'm declaring Raven our leader until Riddler and Slade are either jailmonkeys, or dustmites, I don't really care which."

They give me some scattered looks, and Gothica, who I now notice hasn't said a word or gotten up from her seat, gives me a knowing smile. She pulls out an extra cot, and some blankets, an sets camp at the foot of my bed. As the rest of them leave, I ask her, "You know why, don't you?"

She just grins and lays down to go to sleep.


	15. The Other Side of the Veil

Chapter 15

**Author's Note: **Surprised? Yeah, me too. To be honest, I am literally writing this story one chapter at a time, with almost no forethought. Almost. At least, that was how it was working until recently. I'd like to put a thank you out to A Half-Empty Glass. The review he left got me thinking, and kind of put my mind into overdrive. And I came to a conclusion for how I want this story to end. It's still a little fuzzy, but I have the big picture sorted out.

The reason I'm leaving this note is to avoid any confusion and reviews beginning with the letters wtf. Because from this point on, until the last chapter, the rest of the story will be told from the point of view of the original Titans (third person, cause it feels weird writing Raven in first person, and she plays a big part in the next few segments.) Needless to say, those of you who have followed this story (which I greatly appreciate,) may be surprised by the next few bits.

But I guarantee you'll like it. Have fun.

CHAPTER 15:

(Raven). Being declared the leader did not sit well with her, but after years of learning to suppress her emotions, as well as other people's, she slowly accepted the role. Which took all of two days. The process was made much easier by the fact that all she had to deal with was Beast-Boy, who she had already learned she could control with a little fake anger or well-placed argument, despite him becoming more of an issue lately, Azar knew why; Starfire, who was more than willing to help given the circumstances, but spent most of her time helping Robin recover from his fight with Reflex; and Cyborg, who, under normal circumstances, would be the first to voice his opinions against the latest turn of events. But after Raven explained what she had seen in Reflex's mind before the fight, slowly accepted and understood the newest Titan's position.

It also helped that Robin had talked to them all before their battle. He had explained that, if he had won, he would simply have made Reflex work with the now Young Guardians until the current mission was complete, then re-invite him to the team. And, in addition, if he had lost, which he halfheartedly accepted as a possibility, would simply do everything in his power to make Reflex see exactly what kind of stress a true leader was under.

Reflex's standpoint, on the other hand, both confused her, and made a great deal of sense. Which only served to confuse her more. The plan she had read in his mind was that if he won, the Titans would now have a leader who had the mental and emotional stamina to withstand both Slade's mind-games, and Riddler's real ones. She just hadn't read enough to know that he thought SHE was that person. She had sensed a great deal of respect for her, and for the whole team, while reading his mind. And it was that sense that drove her to follow through with her new position.

What confused her, though, was that he had actually planned to lose. He had expected Robin to cut Reflex's involvement in the mission, and he would be free to take action elsewhere. She had no idea what he thought he was going to do, or what he expected her to do. Something told her he had put a lot more foresight into this than he let on. And it was not knowing that frustrated her.

In the middle of her meditation, in which she was contemplating Reflex's plans, she heard a banging from her front door. Replacing her hood, and opening the door a crack, she stared into the face of her now-subordinate, Reflex. "Good to see you're up and around," she greeted him coolly, and stepped into the hall to speak. Fellow Titan or no, she still hated people in her room.

"Thanks. Good to see you haven't broken down yet. So, as our new leader, do you think we should keep stalling for time until N-Day? Or do you have some dastardly, maniacally awesome plan to win beforehand?" N-Day was what Reflex had started referring to Riddler's chosen date as, for multiple reasons. Mainly, the month of November. He insisted that he had more creative reasons than that. She had gotten used to his snappy personality by now, but sometimes he still irked her, just a bit. He reminded her of Beast-Boy, in a way. Her mind trailed off with thoughts of the green teen. _Why am I thinking about him now? Why has he been bothering me so much lately?_ Reflex snapped his fingers and Raven was brought back to the material world.

"You still with us?"

"Yes. I'm fine. And to answer your question, no. I have almost no idea what to do from here, Jhonas." He flinched at the use of his first name. She knew better than anybody that he had issues with his identity as a person, after re-creating himself as a hero. Sometimes she felt he needed to be reminded that he was only human.

He recovered quickly. "Well, that's ok. I honestly didn't expect you to have all the answers right away. But since you are our new leader, I need to ask your permission for a little task I need to undertake for the next few days."

"Why would you need my permission to-"

"It involves none of you knowing where I am for several days. Straight." She blinked at his blunt answer, not expecting that kind of blatancy from him, she was caught off-guard.

"...And I'm guessing you can't tell me what it is?"

"Not if I want it to work. No offense. But the ewer people that know, the more likely I'll be able to pull this off. And I know I can't stop you from doing so, but I'd advise against reading my mind to find out what it is anyway."

She mulled this over for a moment. "Fine. But I have one rule. You are to send us a message every 48 hours confirming that you are still alive and safe, whatever you consider that to be. I'm not asking you to send coordinates, and you don't even need to use the T-Com. Just let us know you're ok," her voice broke slightly as she talked, in an effort to suppress emotions. Whether they were her's or Reflex's, she couldn't tell.

"I can do that. I'll be leaving tonight, I have a few other Titans to talk to, then pack, and then leave. Whether or not Gothica is coming with me I have no idea, but don't plan on either."

Raven spoke semantics with him for a few more minutes, outlining some details for the next few hours, and days, then sent him off, and made to go back to her meditation.

"Oh, and fearless leader?" Reflex stopped her just short of the door. She paused and turned around.

"Yes?"

"I'd advise taking some time to talk to your team. Some one-on-ones might be a good idea right now." The expression on his face told her that he thought this matter to take precedence over her time alone.

She agreed.

The pale empath decided to make her first stop Robin, to see how well he was recovering. Knocking on the infirmary door, more as a courtesy than anything else, she stepped in, and saw that Robin had regained use of his jaw. And had decided to make up for lost time, with Beast-Boy as his victim.

"What makes that pompous, selfish little government pig think that he can make all the decisions around here?!" She decided to step back and watch him vent for awhile, waiting for a good time to interject.

"Dude, calm down. You told us before hand that we would to along with his decisions if he won, right? And he decided on Raven. Not sure how I feel about that, but-"

"Oh, cry it out, will you? I don't care about your Raven issues right now!" She opened her mouth to interrupt right there. _Raven issues? Don't tell me he-_ but Robin's continual tirade gave her an excuse to be quiet. "What I want to know is what makes him think that he can go pull a stunt like this when we're days away from hell on Earth?"

"Maybe because he thinks it's better to spend the next two weeks productively and with a cool head than yelling at his teammates," Raven answered. The Boy Wonder's expression was enough to tell her that he didn't want that question answered, let alone so abrasively. The two Titans stared at her, Robin in anger, and Beast Boy in embarrassment, which she decided would need to be addressed, and soon. For the time being, though, she filled them in on most of the details of her conversation with Reflex. Robin's expression contorted further with rage at each detail, and when she was done, she feared he may require physical restraint. Beast-Boy must have figured the same thing, because he took the opportunity to pin Robin down with a gorilla arm, and hold him in place. "Look, Robin, he's gotta have some idea what he's doing. He wouldn't leave if he didn't," the changeling attempted to calm his former leader's nerves, to little avail. At the very least, Robin's face lost a small portion of it's excess color.

Raven cut him off before he could continue. "Robin, he's had reasons for everything he's done so far, and I agree with almost all of them. That's the only reason I haven't decided to just return command to you. And besides, you're in no condition to lead us right now. You're more on edge than ever, and you have a known emotional handicap against Slade. Even if Reflex had left well enough alone, I'm willing to bet that you would have lost control somewhere down the line, and control would have been handed off to someone else anyway. Look, just get some rest. You're jaw just finished healing, don't break the rest of you." Robin cooled down slightly, but continued to mumble under his breath. Beast Boy removed his arm, and the Boy Wonder made no attempts to do anything other than sit there and stew.

"Beast-Boy, I need to talk to you," Raven said, waving the green teen out of the room, and into a spare conference room down the hall. BB looked more than a little concerned as he followed her into the room, and even more nervous as she closed the door behind them.

"What's up, Rae?" he asked quietly, not bothering to look up from the table he now sat at.

"What did Robin mean by 'Raven issues'? Is there something we need to discuss?" _Yes, _she answered in her head, but she hoped it wasn't for the issues she thought.

"Well, you see, it's... um..." Beast-Boy stumbled over his words attempting to answer the empath's question, and looked up at her. His expression became unreadable, and he finally spoke up. "The other guys seem to think that I have a crush on you." He laughed it off, as if it was a bad joke, but his voice cracked while doing so. "Cyborg thinks that that was one of the reasons me and Terra broke up, and she left for Red City. I told him he's reading way too much into this. I'm just not sure if I'm comfortable with you as our leader, no offense, but I'm used to taking orders from Robin and Cyborg out on the battlefield. I don't know how I'd feel if those orders came from you. I'd obey them, of course!" he added, waving his hands frantically. "I'm not gonna let my uneasiness get in the way of a fight, I just don't know what kind of affect it would have on me later on."

As he spoke, she could feel color rushing into her face, because even though he denied it, she could feel his affection pouring off of him. What made her the most uncomfortable was realizing that her emotions matched his. _Why in gods' name did he have to time this crap now? I could have gone weeks just pushing this aside. Dammit, Robin,_ she thought to herself, cursing the other Titan for bringing this up. "Beast Boy, listen. I'm not going to sit here and let you lie to yourself, if I think it's going to become a problem. And until you can actually say it, I'm not going to let you leave this room. I can't have you bottling up your emotions and making yourself more and more uncomfortable, and potentially miserable, if we're going into this thing with everything we've got. Not to mention how your emotions would eff with my powers."

The young boy just stared at her, color flooding his face. "I don't-"

"And don't bother denying it, you're a neon sign right now."

Obviously more uncomfortable with the situation than he thought he could be, Beast-Boy became awkwardly silent. After a few minutes, Raven decided that if he wasn't going to say anything, then by Azar, she would. If she knew how. _Just go ahead and say it. You know it's true, denying it would just make it worse. The last thing you need is for this to snowball so badly that you blow something up when he walks into the room._ She realized in trying to convince herself that it must be just as hard for Beast-Boy. So she made a decision.

Pulling up a chair next to him, she scooted as close as the office furniture would allow, placed a hand against his forehead

"Raven, what-" Beast Boy started, but she put a finger to his lips.

"It's ok. I'm sorry I snapped at you, I know this can't be easy to say. I haven't been very accepting of other people's feelings in the past, especially after Malchior. But just hear me out, because I doubt I have it in me to say this more than once: I feel the same way about you, Garfield," she said soothingly, using his real name with caring inflection. Offhandedly, she figured that that was the best way to get a point across with a hero. She opened herself up as best she knew how, focusing herself through her hand, and letting her emotions wash over him. "All of those emotions and feelings that you're broadcasting? They're the same as my own. I'm sorry I yelled, I guess I was just saying what I thought you needed to hear. Turns out, I needed to hear it, too."

The changeling's expression softened with her words, and eventually, he just leaned into her arms. She blushed, and hugged him lightly, when Beast-Boy said, "So this must be why Reflex said I needed to talk to you."

Something clicked in Raven's head, and she stood up rapidly. "Raven, what-" but she cut him off for the second time, grabbing him by the wrist, and dragging him to Reflex's room.

(Cyborg)

"Man, I don't know why you think this stuff is gonna help you, but if you need it that badly," Cyborg said, handing over one of his spare power cells to Reflex, who wrapped it in a towel and stuffed it into a corner of one of his bags.

"Trust me, it's more important than you know. It's also important _that_ you _don't_ know."

"Whatever, man. SO, you talked to Raven and BB?"

"And Robin. Believe me, he took a lot of talking to. I think I finally have him calmed down enough to trust me with what I'm doing."

"I just hope you know what that is. I haven't seen you this wound up and tense since the first time you explained what Obsidiant was to us. At least, when you thought it was a thing, not a person.

"I'm still not entirely sure what I think about that kid. I know he's a good person, and has never used his powers willingly. Apparently, the Sahara incident was when he first realized what his powers were. The military kept him under wraps for awhile, at least until Slade kidnapped him."

"That dude's got some issues. But anyway, I'm just glad I could help. I don't suppose you told Robin what you're doing?"

"No. The only other person who knows the entire plan is Gothica, for reasons I can't tell you."

"Does this have anything to do with her weird personality shifts lately?" Ever since Reflex and Robin's fight, Gothica had become slightly emotionally unstable. At first, everyone thought she had just come out of her shell. They quickly realized, however, that it wasn't that simple. Soon after, she became moody and introverted enough to put Raven's emotional facade to shame. Then, she became happier than anyone had seen her in a very long time. They'd considered taking her to a mental hospital, fearing that Reflex's physical trauma had induced a psychological one in her.

"Yes and no. Her personality shifts are, if you're ready to believe it, part of her powers. And her powers are how she knows about my plans. But nothing I've planned has had anything to do with her abilities, however, after thinking about it for awhile, I'm going to be taking her with me. Better that I keep an eye on her. Besides, I'm the only one she didn't try to bite yesterday." The young girl had suddenly developed a nasty attitude, with physical abuse and hash words her only response to any interpersonal reaction. Reflex, her idol, had been the only person she was willing to let near her. As a matter of fact, she had practically crawled in his lap.

"So, what are her powers?"

"Again, can't tell you. At least not yet. I hadn't built my scheme with her abilities in mind, or having anything to do with them, but I've had to modify them because of her. And if I go into detail on her-"

"Then you may slip details of your big uber-plan that you're not ready to share yet."

"Exactly."

"So, I have a question for you."

"Shoot."

"Why didn't you make me the leader?" _And you better have a good reason for this one, man,_ Cyborg thought to himself. He was still a little sore on the subject.

"Part of the plan."

Cyborg's human eye twitched violently. He opened his mouth to argue, but was interrupted by a banging on the door, and Raven yelling, "Reflex! You tool! Get the hell out here!"

Cyborg turned around to stare at the door, the turned back to look at Reflex, who had slid his goggles on. "Later," he said, grinning, and popped out of view. Cyborg twitched again at the young escape artist's disappearance, then turned and opened the door to Reflex's room. A very angry empath and a thoroughly confused changeling greeted him, with a "Where is he?!" and a "Hey, dude," respectively.

"You just missed him. Is there anything I can-"

"No, their new leader barked, and stormed off, BB in tow. Cyborg decided now would be a good time to see if Reflex had gotten to Starfire yet.

Mumbling to himself about an interfering little Houdini, Cyborg made the trek to Starfire's room. Knocking on the door, it automatically slid open, and he was greeted with a large burst of starbolts. "Ow, Starfire, knock it off!"

The orange alien calmed her flurry of blasts at him, and moved to help him up. "My dearest apologies, Cyborg, I thought you might be-"

"Refex?" he finished for her. The alien princess nodded. "So what did he tell you?"

"Nothing!" she hollered. The tin man wasn't surprised. "He knocked on my door only a few minutes ago, with Siphon next to him, and asked that I give Siphon some Starbolt energy. I was more than happy to oblige, so I supplied them with a generous amount of energy. Siphon seemed to act very strangely after that." It's a little-known fact that starbolt energy gives Siphon a natural high, but noone on the team wanted to explain the concept of _high_ to Starfire. "After that, they merely disappeared! No words of gratitude, or comments as to why-"

"Don't worry Star, he's not telling us anything," Cyborg sighed.

"But he should tell us! Are we not his friends?! We should know what he is planning!"

"He seems to think that the more people know, the more likely it is that he'll fail. According to him, Gothica is the only one who knows the whole thing, and that's apparently only because of her powers. Which he's also not telling us about."

* * *

"This amount of secrecy is unforgivable! I shall track him down immediately, and extract the answers we need!" The alien stormed out of the room, in search of the disappearing act causing all the commotion. _Maybe I should go easy on him when I see him next. BB seems to be the only person not ticked off at him. Although, I think that's because Raven's dragging him around by the hand. Reflex, man, you are in so much trouble._

(Beast Boy)

"Dude, you are in so much trouble," Beast Boy told Reflex, as he, Raven, Starfire, Gothica, Robin (who at current was using a bo staff as a walking stick, to track down Reflex,) and Cyborg, who had just entered the common room. "What were you thinking, messing with everyone like that?"

A look of utmost sincerity and amusement crossed the teleporter's face. "Three things: one, you and Raven _so_ needed to figure it out. Two: like I said, it's all part of the plan. And three:-"

Raven interrupted him, "You better not say-"

"It was funny as hell. As _hell,"_ he enunciated, trying, and failing, to stifle a laugh. "Look, I can't tell you guys what the plan is. One too many people know already," he nodded at Gothica, who gave him a curious look. "If I do, it goes to hell. And it's going to take a few days to kick into gear. We have a lot of popping around to do, my little poppet and I," he added, ending his sentence with a heavy English accent. "I've already got a few pieces of it. I have a lot of work to do, and a great deal of people to see. And I'm the only one who can pull all of this off. And before you can say anything, yes, _I have to do this alone._"

The green teen just shook his head at him. _I don't know why they haven't killed him yet_, he thought to himself. "Can you at least tell us _why_ you can't tell us?"

"That I will tell you. But before I leave, and not a second sooner." That seemed to upset a few of the team member, but mostly just Robin and Starfire. Raven just seethed at him.

"So what made you think that toying with the two of us had anything to do with the master plan of yours?" The angry empath hissed.

"That one wasn't actually part of the plan, so I can go into that in full. First off, it's way unhealthy for to teenagers to have raving crushes on each other and not do anything about it. Things would have gotten so uncomfortable around here that Raven would have started making things explode, and Beast-Boy wouldn't be able to be in the same room as her. Second, I couldn't have the newly elected leader walking around with an emotional time bomb in her head, when that was the exact reason why I replaced Robin with her in the first place. And third, I just wanted to see you to finally get together before I left. I'm kind of a sucker for happy endings."

"But why did you do it the way you did?" Beast Boy asked.

"Again, because it was funny as hell. My original plan was for Raven to go around having one-on-one sessions with everyone, and when she finally got to talking to Beast Boy, which, under normal circumstances, would have been a relatively neutral conversation, I would have popped in, said 'You two have crushes on each other. GO.' and popped out. But Robin just made it a little easier for me with his emotional tirade."

At this point, Robin interjected. "But why did you feel it necessary to piss me off before you left?"

"Because you need to get it off your chest now. If Raven's not able to hold up, you're the first person she's gonna turn to for advice. And you being little miss pissy sends that all to hell."

Gothica decided to interrupt at that point, wanting to divert the conversation away from this uncomfortable topic, "What about you and Jinx? Was that-"

"Part of the plan? Yeah," Reflex sighed, a little disheartened. Beast Boy could tell it was one of the more difficult parts of the plan.

"Dude, that sucks," the green teen added consolingly.

"It'll get better."

"But why did you leave without saying anything when I gave Siphon the starbolts?" Starfire asked, again changing the course of the conversation.

"Because I knew you would ask a lot of questions, and I couldn't have you knowing what Siphon's part of the plan was, or vice versa."

Cyborg decided to chip his two cents in. "How long have you been planning this?"

Reflex grinned at them all. "Since we got the letter from Kid Infernity."

A thought sprang into Beast Boy's head at the mention of the pyronic Irishman. "Hey, how the hell did you know what that dude was saying, anyway? I couldn't understand a word of it."

Reflex's grin grew wider, and he pulled out a small, white book with green lettering. "The Feckin' Book o' Everything Irish," he answered. "Been reading it every day since Christmas last year. Well, that's all I got for you guys right now. Have a good one!" He motioned Gothica over, and gathered his bags up. She wrapped her arms around him, and he slid on his VGs. As he was about to depart, however, Raven stopped him. "You said you would tell us why you couldn't tell us before you left, right?"

Reflex nodded. "That I did. And the answer is simple," he said, adjusting everything to make sure he had contact with all of his things, and his passenger. "You wouldn't let me do it if you knew what it was." Gothica giggled, and in an instant, the two were gone.

(Raven)

A few hours after Reflex had left, Raven had taken to her room for meditation. It had taken some time to sort everything out after Reflex's departure, and to call some of the other Titans. Most of them, however, only had one thing to say: "I don't know, he said it was all part of some plan."

She had only been there a few minutes, however, when there was a knock on the door. In her usual habit, she replaced her hood, and opened the door just enough to see who it was.

"Hi," Beast Boy said, waving a hand shyly. "I know you probably want to be left alone right now, but I kinda wanted to make sure that what happened earlier tonight wasn't a daydream.

She paused, as he memory of their conversation floated back to her. _That's right, I finally told him I like him_, she thought. Although, she was kind of stuck at this point. She had never approached anything like a normal relationship, excluding the book-bound dragon that toyed with her emotions. She also realized, after a few moments, that Beast Boy probably hadn't, either. His 'relationship' with Terra had been nothing but a trial for him, as nothing they'd done together since she had been restored could be considered romantic, except for their first kiss.

After a few seconds of silence, she opened the door, and motioned for him to step in. "No, it was real," she told him. "I just became a little sidetracked at Reflex's meddling." She silently cursed and thanked the interfering Houdini at the same time, though she would never admit to him that she was thankful.

"So, are we going to go anywhere from here? Or should we old off until after-" Beast Boy's question was interrupted by Raven's lips, as she brushed hiss with a small kiss. He stood there in silence for a moment, before Raven finally spoke.

"Look, I'm not very good at displaying my emotions, at all. And, this liking someone thing is almost completely new to me. So I told myself earlier that I would do everything I could not to hold myself back. Normally, when I'm nervous, or scared, or angry, or sad, I destroy things. But I've noticed that when I'm happy, or content, even, my powers don't react. So, I'm sorry if I seem a little forward, I'm just making myself push through some emotional barriers. And please, don't ask me to-"

The changeling interrupted her ranting with a finger to her lips. "Don't worry. I won't take this any faster or slower than you think we should. And I won't ask you do do anything. Except maybe stop hogging the covers."

She blushed furiously at the innuendo, stammering out, "B-Beast Boy! Wha-"

"Joking!" he added, waving his hands defensively. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and brought his face to hers. "Just joking," he said softly, returning her kiss.

They stayed like that for a few moments, and Beast Boy too a seat, while Raven sat cross legged on the bed. They had a lot to talk about that night. But first things first. Raven pointed a finger at Beast Boy, "We can never, _never_, admit to Reflex that he was right. His ego is big enough as it is."


	16. Points of View

Chapter 16

(Jinx)

Steel City, late evening.

The pink-haired sorceress had come a long way to stand where she was now. Just a month or two ago, she was top in her class at HIVE academy, barking orders at the new students, pulling all-nighters to stay in first. Then, in a rush of explosions, emotion, and betrayal, she was free from a life she never truly wanted, spending her days with someone she thought would understand her most of all. But after watching him take the risks that he did, she didn't want to risk getting attached enough to get hurt. So now she was standing at the front step of Titan's East, waiting for them to answer the door.

A torrent of emotions rushed through her, and she wished more than anything that she had her own magic mirror to talk to her emotions in. All of a sudden, the door slid open, and a blur of red and white rushed around her in circles, and she heard a blur of sound in a heavy spanish accent to match. Before she could react, she saw two small boys, one performing a handstand on the other, and the only solid word she could make out was "Que`?"

Jinx blinked a few times to adjust to the new people. Then, someone she could understand finally made an appearance, Aqualad. "Thanks for stopping by, Jinx. I heard what happened. I guess you can't be too safe, right? Anyway, come on in. It's about to rain."

She took a glance skyward to confirm his story, and didn't see a cloud in the sky. "Yeah, right."

"Trust me, it's a water thing. Now get in here, we just ordered dinner."

She decided not to doubt him, and sidestepped the speedy twins on her way inside. Making her way to the main chamber, she was greeted in turn by Speedy, and Bumblebee.

"Nice to have you on board, Jinx," Bee said. "We could use all the help we can get, with this new guy making problems on our side of the country. Slade and the Riddler may not be giving Jump any problems, but Steel City? Gotham is practically our backyard when it comes to supervillains. And Arkham Asylum is just next door."

Speedy's greeting was a little more pleasant. "So, what's it like having been to both Titan's towers? Only Cyborg has ever done that." She flinched slightly at Cyborg's name. Anything that reminded her of a past relationship tugged at her heartstrings right now. Speedy caught on to the slip, and stepped aside. Bumblebee decided just to take her to the room she'd be staying in, and leave her alone for a moment.

She unpacked her belongings, and a few minute later, she heard a knock at her door. "DO you want something to eat? Dinner's here."

"I'll be out in a minute," she answered. She sighed for a moment, then sat down on the pre-made bed. Leaning back on two hands, her left hand fell on a hard item under the covers. She pulled back the sheets and bedspread, and found a small, gift wrapped package underneath. A small, gold wrapped box with red ribbons, she turned it over, but didn't see a tag. She had just decided to open it, when she heard a familiar voice behind her. "Don't you ever think that I won't fight for you."

Whipping around, she was pulled into a deep, passionate kiss, and had just enough time to register Reflex's familiar goggles, before the intensity of the kiss overcame her, and she closed her eyes, tilting her head to fall deeper in. He held her like that for a long time, then whispered in her ear, "And don't think that crossing the country will let you get away from me. After all the time I spent on you, what in gods' name would make you think I don't love you?"

She pulled back, slightly startled, and saw nothing but raw passion in his eyes. "I can't, I can't lose you to sheer recklessness. I don't think-"

"But I do. More than you know. Everything I've done I've done for a reason. You may not like it, but I knew how you would react. Reflex is more than my name. It's me. I know reactions and responses better than anyone you will ever meet. That's how I got my name in the military, not my powers. I'm sorry I had to do this to you, I needed a way to get you here that wouldn't put any doubt into anyone's mind about the reason. I can't have people guessing my plan, it's too risky. But I will tell you this. I've had girlfriends before. I've even had a lover or two. But no one, and I mean _no one_, has ever driven me as far or as fast as you do. I can't control myself around you sometimes; that's why I can't take you with me. I love you, I'll say it right now. And what spurs me isn't impulse. It isn't reactions to anything. It's drive. I have to protect you. To protect the other Titans. That's why they can't know what I'm doing. I can't risk you. And I know you don't want to risk me. I know it's unfair, but I'm going to have to ask you to do just that. I'll visit you, constantly. But not around other people. I need as little contact with the Titans as possible. I just get what I need, and leave. Just don't try to be alone any more often than usual, and make sure you have long spaces of time to yourself. Don't worry, I'll know when it's safe. Robin and Cyborg gave me more power with these goggles than they know. And it helps that I had a friend of mine make some more modifications to it. But," he added, winding down his speech. "I won't use them for anything evil, I can promise that. I learned my lesson on spying for uncouth reasons from Raven. Trust me, don't ask."

She blinked at him a few times, then sighed in exasperation. His long-winded speeches were just one more thing she would have to get used to. "I love you too. And yes, I have no issue getting back together. But if you _ever_ toy with my emotions like that again," she paused, taking a second to punch him in the stomach, "I will make you pay for it." He doubled over from the blow, laughing.

"That's fair. And yes, you can tell people I was here. Whenever I visit. Just don't tell them _while_ I'm here."

She helped him stand up again, and draped her arms around his shoulders. "Don't make me wait too long for my next visit. And if you want to spy on me, I have no issues with that. As a matter of fact," she added, dropping the shoulder on her blouse, exposing some skin. "You said something about having lovers before. I may drive you faster and farther, but," she said patting the bed, moving the gift to an empty table, "let's see if I can drive you _higher _than they can."

She could tell by his wide-eyed expression the emotions that battled within him. On one side, he didn't want to rush in. He'd said this before, when she had hit on him in his bedroom. On the other hand, she could tell he wanted it. And apparently, he wanted it enough, because he only stopped in his tracks for a second before saying, "Hell with it, it's more than worth it."

She grinned, taking him into her arms.

(Kole)

The first thing the shapeshifter notices was a knock at her door. This was unusual, because nobody knew where she was. Except Gnarc, but he knocked much louder than this. She threw some clothes on, and creaked her small wooden door open, to reveal a tall teenager in a purple trenchcoat, with pieces of armor on his joints, hands and feet. His long ponytail swung in the slight breeze outside, and his goggles held the rest of his hair in place. He had a relatively striking figure, the skintight shirt revealing tone muscles and a lean frame, his wild eyes suggesting mischief and unparallelled creativity.

She had heard about Reflex from the other Titans. Quick-witted, slightly manipulative, good at reading people. According to the others, and to some of the military members he'd served with that had left comments on his record. He was government trained, and had endured more training, hardships, and traumas than most officers endure in their careers. Despite all that, she'd also heard stories about his sense of loyalty, his higher than estimated intelligence, and the fact that everything he did, he did for his friends.

"So are you going to invite me in, or am I going to have to stand out here until I look like you on a good day?" She had also heard about how crass he could be, at first. The other Titans had warned her ahead of time that he might visit; all the Auxiliary Titans had. They had also told her that he did not want it to be known who he visited, or why. They'd informed her to keep any information on him private, for safety's sake. And to not let him get the better of her, verbally.

"Come on in. I hope you don't mind the cramped room, I'm not used to tall, gangly freaks."

He nodded appreciatively. "Nicely done. I like you. Listen, you need a haircut."

"Is this another insult test? Or are you a beauty specialist by day?"

"Let me rephrase that, before I risk pissing you off before I get what I want. I need a chunk of your hair."

"Ok, that sounds reasonable enough-"

"After you turn crystal." He stared at her for a few moments. "Before you ask, no I can't tell you why; yes, it is essential; and yes, I can make it look good."

She mulled it over for a few moments. "Alright. But let me go tell Gnarc. If he walks in while I'm getting a haircut, he'll try to rip you to shreds."

"Fine. Look, I like you. You're smart, you've obviously been warned before hand that I would visit. And you're kind of cute, in a little sister sort of way. But I'm here entirely on business. I get that chunk of crystal, and I'm gone."

"Ok. But why my hair?"

"Would you rather I took a finger?"

"Good point. Ok, I'll be right back."

After a few moments, Kole was sitting on the ground, with Gnarc only a few feet away. She sat in a cross-legged position, and said, "Ok, let's get started." Instantly, she had become a gleaming crystal of a pretty young girl. She wasn't aware of anything after that, not for a few moments, but after counting down in her head, she turned back.

"Ok, that's good. I think I have the chunk I need. Now let me fix your hair, I kinda took off a chunk."

She started. "How much is a chunk?"

A couple of minutes and a pixie cut later, she observed herself in a hand mirror that Reflex had with him, and discovered that her hair was considerably shorter. But it didn't look too bad.

"Ok, I think we're done here."

She turned to respond, but discovered that he was already gone. Gnarc shot up, and started looking around their home for him, but Kole calmed him down. "Don't worry about it. Let's just be happy we don't live with him."

(Alicia White)

"Atten-shun!" A tall, slender white-haired woman barked her orders at her cadets. Running them through their rounds, she was brutal. Ordering maneuvers and practices until they were worn to the bone. She always exhausted her troops. She demanded the utmost respect. And she received it. After an hour and a half more of drills and practices, she called for a break. Her troops collapsed where they stood, some laying flat on their backs, some leaning against their weapons. An assortment of young adults, all of them with abilities.

She walked among the ranks, nodding at some, speaking encouraging words to others. Her ice blue eyes shone intelligently as she appraised her soldiers. They all hailed from different parts of the world, some new to the ranks, others veterans of her employ and training. But as the tired brigade sprawled out on the grass for a much-deserved rest, she noticed one thing: they were all smiling.

"Captain!" she heard one of the younger recruits yell out for her. She turned to greet him, and he pointed a hand behind her. "We have a visitor."

Captain Alicia White turned and came face-to-face with her greatest achievement. A young man in an armored trenchcoat and skintight shirt stood before her, with some modifications to his outfit since the last time she saw him. He now donned a new pair of goggles, almost identical to his old ones, but she spotted some extra wiring near the frames. He stood with confidence, and an air of superiority hung about him as he stood tall amongst the ranks. An air that, in her opinion, he more than deserved. But first things first.

"What the hell do you think you're doing here? Do you have any idea how much trouble you'll be in if the find out you're on base without...a...pass..." Her tirade trailed off as he dangled a yellow pass in her face, indicating that he had already visited the front office. "Ok, so you remember how to follow protocol, very nice," she smirked at him.

"Of course. Don't you think I'd remember everything I learned from you? I'm still alive, aren't I?"

"So far," she remarked, and swung a now-clawed hand at his face. He ducked, and grabbed her wrist, twisting, and spun her around, pinning her to the ground. She used her free hand to push them both off the ground, and swung out from under him, throwing him aside. He landed in a handspring, and bounced backward, then vanished. She swung a leg behind him, predicting his next move, but didn't hit anything. Then, a split second later, he landed feet first on her shoulders, kicking off and pushing her to the ground. She landed hard on her back, but kicked off and landed back on her feet, and noticed that he was nowhere to be seen. At that point, she felt a scratching behind her ears, and her knees nearly buckled.

"You always cheated," she purred, her real ears, catlike, and white like her hair, with light blue tips to match her eyes, popped out of her hair. Her tail unwrapped from underneath her uniform's blazer. She leaned into his scratch, and nearly fell over backwards. She heard a few laughs from her subordinates, and instantly spun around to face them, a deep, feral growl roaring from the base of her throat. They stopped laughing, and she barked at them to stand at attention. "I will make this clear right now," she said, pointed a clawed finger at the group, "If any of you ever, _ever_, try to pull that on me, I will have you running laps until you break. Do I make myself clear?!" The fear sparked in their eyes let her know that she was heard. She turned to Reflex again, and he motioned to her office, a small building on the edge of the field.

They made their way to the back room of the building, and she glared daggers at him. "What in god's name made you think that that was a good idea?!"

"Well, how else was I going to get you away from them? You run those guys ragged on a daily basis." He sat in the large chair behind her desk, and she perched on top of it, sitting on her knees.

"That doesn't mean you have to be mean about it. So, what can I do for you?"

"I need my suit." She blinked at him, and tried very hard not to fall off the table.

"I thought you hating using that thing. You said it was too bulky, too heavy to use."

He stood up, and took off his trenchcoat, letting it fall to the ground. The crashing sound it made when it hit the ground let her know that it was greatly weighted, she'd guess at about 40 pounds. "How do you wear that without it throwing you off with every move?" she asked, picking it up with some effort. She slung it on, the dark purple and black horribly clashing with the deep blue of her uniform, and the light blues and whites of her fur and features. She noticed that the base, all the way up to the waist, had almost no excess weight in it, but sported extra padding. All of the weight was in the chest and shoulders, to provide balance and counterweight to the padding. "Why doesn't it have sleeves?"

"A few reasons. I don't want them catching on anything, which is why my shirt is skintight, and I only wear pieces of armor on my hands, feet, and joints. They also have a tendencies to restrict movement for certain techniques, which is just one less thing I want to have to worry about during battle. Also, I think it looks better," he said, taking the coat back, and slinging it back on.

She considered him for a moment, and motioned for him to follow her. She walked down the hall, and took him to a smaller room at the side of the building. "I figured you'd want to use it again, so I had them make some modifications. It's now almost lighter than street clothes, thanks to Freeboard."

"Freeboard? When did you talk to him?"

"He sought me out, actually. It's a long story, but he knew that I worked with you, and wanted to see if I could get him started on the hero thing, like you did. He ended up joining the, what are they called now, the Young Guardians?"

"Yeah. Guess you can never underestimate his ambition, huh?"

"Nope," she agreed, opening a locked metal casket laying in a back room. Reflex looked in, and marveled at the newest version of his old uniform. This would work perfectly.

"Tell the boys that I'll be out in a second, I want to run them through some drills before I leave," Reflex said with a malicious grin.

Alicia grinned to herself as she walked out of the office building. _Those boys are going to need some deep R&R after he's done with them._


	17. Call Me Jack Rapid

Chapter 17

(Raven)

It had been a week since Reflex had disappeared, and she had started dating Beast Boy. Sometimes she couldn't believe she was actually in a relationship with the string bean, but he had proven to be much more competent at romance, intimacy, and relationships in general than she would have expected. They still had not gone all the way, and she didn't expect that they would for a long time. Garfield had trouble controlling his base urges when they did anything more than kiss, and for Raven, who was the child of rape, sex was a very sensitive and scary subject.

However, the boy knew how to give a massage. She stretched out languidly as a heavy house-cat strolled across her back, kneading her shoulders with it's forepaws, and stretching out it's hind legs, pressing into her lower back. She moaned contentedly as Beast Boy then changed into his regular self, working heavy circles on her shoulder blades. "Who knew someone with such a crappy sense of humor would be this good with his hands..." she trailed off, nearly falling asleep. She noticed after a few moments that he had stopped, and rolled onto one side to see what was the matter.

Beast Boy sat Indian style next to her, arms crossed, and putting slightly. "That's it," he growled, "You're not getting another massage until I can make you laugh."

She flopped onto her back. _So much for that,_ she thought. She would never in a hundred years admit to him that she'd laughed at almost all of his jokes, in her head at least, since they'd met. Even if they were dating, for the sake of the universe, she had to keep him trying. Because she knew that as soon as he got her to laugh, he would move on to the next victim, and she wouldn't wish that on her worst enemy. He could be truly relentless. However, she did not want to give up the free massages, he was too good, so she started thinking of how to apologize properly, and get him to keep going.

She had just about figured it out when her train of thought was derailed, thrown off of a cliff, and struck down with an anti-aircraft missile, before falling into metal-eating mechanical piranha infested waters by Reflex popping into the room and shouting into the megaphone she would _swear_ she had buried in cement at the bottom of Titans Lake, "What's Up, People?!" The shock from the noise sent Beast Boy running under the bed in the form of a small dog, and Raven freaked out so badly her window shattered outwards.

After recovering from arsehole-induced shock, she spun around and glared daggers at him, yelling, "What in the name of Azar do you think you're doing?! This is my room, I've told you never to pop in here!"

"Yes, but this was the only way I could speak to both of you at the same time. Robin, Starfire, and Cyborg are all out of the tower, and if I'd called, they'd know I used the comm system. And I already told you the rules-"

"Yeah, yeah," Beast Boy interrupted, crawling out from his hiding space. "No one but the people you visit are allowed to know where you are, and no more than two people at a time can know where and when you visited at any given point," he cited, repeating the rules Reflex had laid down before he left. "But why did you have to use the megaphone? And don't say-"

"Because it's funny that way", Reflex cut him off. "Anyway, you two have a huge role in this. Beast Boy, I know you have a great deal of knowledge on human biology, you being you and your parents, both your birth parents and the guys from Doom patrol, being who _they _are. I need your help on setting up the last few pieces of my project. Namely, the safest way to hook it up to _me._"

"Why would you need me for that? Cyborg could do the same thing. In fact, he's probably better for it than I am, being who _he _is. Dude, tech and biology? Cyborg?"

"Actually, I had Cyborg's input already. He made sure this thing won't kill me while it's attached. YOUR job is to make sure I don't attach it incorrectly. I'd ask an actual doctor, but the less people know about this, the better. That, and I'd have to explain everything this suit does, and they'd commit me for it. Raven," Reflex added, "your job is going to take a lot of time, and we only have a week left to do this. You guys are my second to last stop. After the next person, I'm coming home for good. What I need from _you,_" he added, pointing a finger at the empath, "is going to take several days of constant work. And nobody but you two are allowed to know that I'm here for the next two or three days."

"What could you possibly need me for that would take that long?"

"I need you to help me craft my own mindscape mirror," he said bluntly, in that tone of voice that left no room for questioning, or doubt for his seriousness in the matter. Raven sighed.

"That is going to take more than a couple of days, Reflex, it took me a month to make Starfire's, and that was with three hours a day."

"Yes, but Starfire, no offense to her, was not trained at the time to clear everything out of your mind at a moment's notice, and we're not doing just three hours a day. I mean three days _straight._ This needs to be done."

She just stared at him for a few moments. "You want to try and create a mindscape mirror in _three days_. You. _Are_. _INSANE. _It took me two weeks to do it. There is no way I could-"

"YOU aren't making this mirror. You are telling ME how do do this so I can spend the next three days getting it done." His voice was stern, abrasive, and harsh. The only thing that kept Raven from storming away and ignoring his request completely was that even though his voice was commanding and rude, his emotions almost _pleaded_ her to go along with this. She looked at him again after scanning his emotions for answers, and saw his expression falter for a moment. In that second, she saw him almost on the verge of dropping to his knees to beg. "Please, just do this for me. I can't pull this off without you."

She sighed for a moment. "All right, give me a moment. Let me get you the books, and a new mirror glass. You'll have to craft your own frame, but I have the stuff to do that in half a day."

He smiled at her, and shook her hand. "Thank you. You have no idea how much this is going to help." He turned to Beast Boy, "Ok, while she's gathering the materials for it, I'll give you the schematics for the equipment, and how I need it set up. Your job is to make sure that the specified points of connection _don't kill me._ And, apparently, you have three days to work on this."

The green teen sighed after witnessing the conversation, and at his given task. "Alright, let's get this over with."

(FreeBoard)

Reflex had shown up earlier this morning, and looked more than exhausted, but extremely satisfied. He looked like he'd just gotten laid. "So, you and Jinx finally got to it, huh?"

"Actually, that happened a couple of weeks ago. And a week and a half ago. And-"

"I GET IT. So what's up?"

"Well, I need some more help on the project. It's the last thing that needs to be done, by the way..."

It took me awhile to piece together everything that Reflex was asking me to do. And I have to say, he'd done really well to put everything together like this, even if he was _totally fucking insane!_ "Do you have any idea how much of a bad idea this is?! We couldn't trick Powerhouse into doing this, and we could get him to climb into a barrel of piranha by telling him they'd decided to become vegetarians. There is no way I'm doing this! Ever!"

"Alicia's single now," he countered. I thought about it for a moment. I had met the snow leopard of a drill sergeant that Reflex had worked with in the military. All it took was a moment. "Where do we start?"

We spent the next two days getting the suit together, and setting up the equipment so that he could attach it with ease. It would hurt like a fucker, but it would only take a second. It wasn't going to be pretty. And to be fair, _I_ spent the next two days putting everything together, he spent the next two days sitting in front of a mirror, or sleeping, or eating my food. And the mirror was kind of weird looking, too. It had a metal frame that looked like he'd taken a stereo speaker, removed the magnet, and placed a large piece of thick glass in the outer metal frame. It was kind of cool. Except for the fact that he looked all weird and trancy while doing so. Lord knows what he was doing with that thing. He just kept staring at it for hours at a time while we were working.

The third day was the bitch. And also very interesting. It came in two parts: realizing that something was drastically different about Reflex from when he arrived two days ago, and watching Reflex writhe in pain for a few minutes. Allow me to elaborate.

When I woke up that morning, the day before Halloween, I noticed two things. The first was that I was almost out of food. Having gone to the kitchen for breakfast, I noticed rapidly that almost all of my food was AWOL. I turned around to wake Reflex up to ask him, and discovered that he was already awake. That's when I noticed the second thing: in the space of two days, he had gone from a slightly carefree, if still ex-military superhero with some cool powers and a head for ideas, to a moderately hardcore martial artist with an athletic body build that was so tone, and so cut that you could (and I mean this almost entirely literally) break steel over him, and he might not even notice.

He was doing push-ups in my living room, with no shirt, his hair tied back and clipped to his belt (the guy's got really long hair, people. It goes down past his belt.) to keep it from getting in the way of his exercises. He looked like he'd been at it awhile. I waited for a few minutes, pouring myself a bowl of cereal that I considered myself lucky to have found, and watched him go at it. When he was finished, I asked him point-blank: "What did you do to yourself?"

He smiled at me, this lazy, satisfied grin that you get when you've done a hard days work, and are looking at the results. "What do you mean?"

"Dude, you look like Chuck fucking Norris. How'd you pull that off?"

He un-clipped and untied his hair, and let it fall around him, and I swear to god some girl within a two mile radius must have felt a wave of awesome go by. (I should make a note right here that I'm a fence-sitter when it comes to dating. I like both guys and girls. And he looked _good_.) "I've looked like this since I joined the Titans. I'll admit, the last two years have done some nice fine-tuning, but the bulk of it was the military hardcore drilling."

He'd told me about the rigorous training he had been put through for almost a year when the military got hold of him. Some special meta-human unit, led by a one Captain Alicia White. The few times I'd met her, I could only think of two things. One, she was hot. I mean deliciously-sultry-put-it-anywhere-she-asked-me good. The second, was that you did not show this woman disrespect. The only person that I'd ever seen her take any guff from was Reflex, but that probably had something to do with the fact that they'd been having a brief affair at the time. That had cut short when he went to join the Titans. It was too much trouble for him to go through all the red tape just to get in reach of her, for them to keep it up.

"So, why do I get the feeling that something about you is drastically different? You're a lot more, I don't know, _intense._"

"That is actually a recent thing. I'm guessing you noticed me camping the freaky mirror while you were working on the suit, right?"

"Yeah, thanks for the help, by the way."

"Well, I actually was doing something. Do you remember when I told you the story of Beast Boy and Cyborg going into Raven's mind?"

"Yeah, that little hand mirror she had? Wait, don't tell me..."

"That's _my_ mindscape mirror. It took three days of intense as hell meditation, but I got it working a couple hours before I came here. That's why I looked so damn exhausted when I arrived."

"So what were you working on in the mirror that took two days?"

"I was training with Bravery, Discipline, Rage, Knowledge, and Focus. Bravery and Rage basically wailed on me for a few hours, before I started getting the better of them. It was so hardcore, man. We went at it like rabid dogs for hours. That was all of day one. Nothing but fighting, and there's no better opponent than yourself. It's even better when there's two. I still get my ass handed to them, because as I get better, so do they. But it helped a lot. Day two was basically a twenty hour session of nothing but practicing basics, focusing, training my powers. Knowledge and Focus helped power everything I already knew, at least subconsciously, about fighting into my conscious mind. Discipline was basically there for both days to make sure I didn't stop, and to test me on everything I was practicing. And the more they drilled me, the better they got, which means I got better. It's an awesome cycle of self-realization, man."

I stood in awe at his speech, while he wiped sweat off of him with a stray towel, and threw his clothes back on. He re-tied his hair, into it's traditional style of ponytail and a lock of hair on each side of his face, and put his trench back on. "You should get some lunch, it's almost noon," I told him. I still didn't completely understand what had happened to my friend, but, like everything else, I realized two things: he was officially a bad-ass, and I wanted him.

The afternoon sucked greatly. Mostly for Reflex, but partially for me, cause I had to watch.

The equipment I'd worked so hard to put together, and he'd spent weeks gathering materials for, was a suit. It was a new take on an old training outfit he'd worn in the military, which was originally designed to help him trigger his powers. As he'd explained it, when he first got his powers, he couldn't make them work all the time. The suit tapped into his powers directly, and allowed him to hit a couple of buttons in the gloves, and teleport him manually. He'd learned by the time he left what he so affectionately referred to as Metacademy, (a tribute to one of his favorite books), so he no longer needed the suit. He'd realized a couple of weeks ago, however, that with the right modifications, he could make the suit into an enhancement system for his powers, and use it to do things with his abilities that he normally wouldn't be able to do.

He'd come up with the idea a couple of weeks ago, and showed up at my door with a great deal of questions. I told him he'd need a few things. One, would be a power supply, something compact that could keep a large piece of very high-end equipment going for a very long time. So he'd dropped off one of Cyborg's fully charged power cells. I also told him we'd need a form of raw energy to power the suit that was compatible with the power supply, because sheer electrical energy ran the ever present risk of short circuiting, and I could construct open ended power paths to route the energy through the suit without wires. We tried Powerhouse at first, but his was too volatile. It was raw energy, yes, but we couldn't keep it contained. Then Reflex showed up with Siphon, who had taken in a max capacity charge of Starfire's starbolt energy, and it was almost too perfect.

It was controlled, malleable, but most off, it was raw, unadulterated power in a freaking can. It had taken forever for Siphon to figure out how to store energy in an object that we could use, though. He tended to just release it and blow stuff up at first. But after training with him for awhile, I was able to get him to a point where he could draw, expel, store, and damn near do anything with any energy type he could safely absorb except turn it into something else. Then we needed a form of pure crystal that I could use as a conduit for the energy paths I was creating for the suit.

He had outdone himself with this one. He had teleported to the freaking North Pole with the help of The Herald and pulled a bunch of almost perfect crystal pieces from her hair. Then, he had talked to a couple of the runaways taken in by the Young Guardians, a pair of twins called Replica and Morph. Replica had the power to recreate anything she could hold in her hand in her other hand, so we had her make a few starbolt-charged power cells for the suit, two to run it with a generous supply, and two as backups in case of emergency. I had to tweak the hell out of it to get that damn power cell to use starbolt energy instead of it's normal stuff, but I did it. That was my first week's project. We also had her recreate a very generous amount of Kolite, as Reflex called it, the crystal that Kole turned into.

That's where Morph came in. Her power was changing the shape of anything she touched, like molding clay, as long as it was a solid and consistent object. Like rocks or crystal, or wood. She couldn't work with anything with more than one part, which was fine, we just needed a whole shit-ton of crystal. It also worked out that she had the ability to make it slightly malleable, so that we didn't have to use links of small chunks of it, she could make it bend just enough to allow freedom of movements in the joints, while making longer solid pieces for the parts of Reflex that didn't bend.

Overall, the idea, the implementation, and the suit itself was an almost obscenely brilliant idea, and well done. Especially since all of Reflex's powers were already programmed into the suit, we just had to work some more software into it, and make the original model much less bulky, build in a layer of heavy kinetic padding for armor, and make it look much cooler. Overall, it was lightweight, flexible, durable as hell, and totally bad ass looking.

The sucky part was putting it on. See, the old suit was able to work directly with his powers because it was attached _to his nervous system._ See why we called him insane for this? This suit had to literally attach itself to nerves all over his body, which included eight spinal taps, a neural wire that ran behind his eyes, and about forty other micro-incisions throughout the rest of his body. There was only one upside to this: I had, thanks to my parents, a life-size doll made in Reflex's generic physical specifications, that had a computer based nervous system built into it that did one thing. It told me whether I killed the person, or the neuro-tap was successful. My parents actually had to help me with this part the last couple of days, and thank them for being medical technicians and creators of medicinal technology for Star labs, by the way.

With this, we were able to determine that putting on the suit was, medically, safe, but the sensors in the dummy made it really damn clear that it was going to hurt. Fortunately, once he slid the suit on, goggles and all, all of the attachments, incisions, and implants that needed to be made, were done by the suit itself. And it took about a couple of minutes. We'd built the equipment in it to be able to function and attach itself even while the wearer was moving, say for example, whilst thrashing around in pain, so there was no risk of any of it breaking off inside him, or the suit malfunctioning in the microsurgery process.

I ran Reflex through all of this before he put the suit on, as a warning, and a recap, to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything. Then the hard part came. He slid what we had christened his JumpSuit on, (a little bit of bad humor to ease the tension), and it fit like a glove. I admired his appearance before we switched on the pain.

It was mainly a three-piece suit. It had a black skintight (which I took a moment to admire) top, the neck of which stopped just below his chin, and had no shoulders, but the sleeves ended in fingerless gloves. The suit was padded, but the padding was thin enough to see, well, finer details. Red-painted stripes ran in parallel lines down the sides of his arms, giving him stripes on the front and back of his arms when he held them to his sides at attention. The wires in the chest and back were worked under the padding, because that was the majority of the equipment, and the crystals on the sides were also under the padded suit.

The pants were much the same, red streaks down the sides of his legs, not in lightning bolts, like some heroes, just simple red lines on black, that blended into the design of his custom made boots. The laces and twin belts on his boots were black, like the top half, but the bottom half, the underside, the heel, and toe of each boot were blood red.

The third piece was his new goggles. They were more like a mask than anything else. I'd reworked the VidGoggles he'd gotten from Robin into the design for the JumpSuit, and built in padding that trailed from his eyes, covering the bridge of his nose, and drew back along the top of his cheekbone to the back of his neck in one solid stripe, making sure to cut it so that the fabric went _underneath_ his ponytail (he'd never forgive me if I made him cut that off). The goggles themselves had been painted blood red, like the rest of his accents, and the fabric for his mask was black, padded and with wires underneath. The lock of hair on each side of his face draped nicely around his mask, like a perfect finishing touch. Overall, he looked like a real superhero. And totally fucking shmexy.

"Ok, Reflex, do you want me to paint your trenchcoat to go with the rest of your outfit?"

"No. I don't need that anymore. It's weighted, which would go against the entire design for this outfit. Plus, I don't even really like trenchcoats. And don't call me Reflex anymore, just use my old name. Reflex was my military codename. I'll have to use a new name entirely now that I've got the new suit. Something more befitting a Teen Titan."

"Ok, Jhonas. Well, get ready for a lot of hurt, and press the button on the right side of your goggles."

He raised a tentative hand to the side of his face, and his grimace betrayed an expression most people get just before they make The Big Jump. "Here goes nothing," he cliched, and hit the button.

I have never heard anyone scream so loudly in my lifetime. And it will haunt me for years.

(Robin)

The Boy Wonder had dealt with many things. Many criminals, new relationships, stalker fangirls, supervillains, even Beast Boy for years. But nothing made his right eye twitch in that special way quite like Reflex did. SO when he heard that the Titan was to return home today, he wasn't quite sure how to take it. He had enjoyed the two weeks without him, even if he wasn't leading his team during that timeframe. Although, he had to admit, Raven handled their current situation quite admirably. The empath was currently standing at his side, her arm around Beast Boy's waist, while he had his around Starfire, and Cyborg stood beyond her. They were all awaiting the return of their questionable, yet loyal, and unexpectedly intelligent teammate.

"Dude, when did he say he was going to show up?" Beast Boy asked for the dozenth time.

"About five minutes after you _quit asking me that!"_ Cyborg yelled at him. Raven just smacked the changeling upside the head, and quieted any further complaints with a kiss. Robin rolled his eyes at the two, who, lately, had been more touchy-feel-y than he would have expected. Apparently, according to Raven, Love, Happiness, and Joy are not emotions that blow stuff up.

"Beast Boy's kind of right, though, he should be here by now." Robin looked around, half expecting the teleporter to just be standing off to the side randomly, like he usually did, without notice. They'd once slowed down a recording of him teleporting three feet away, to a frame-by-frame shot, and found out that there actually was a slight visual effect: Frame one, normal. Frame two, his eyes turned bright white. Frame three, his entire form, outline, and everything he was carrying, turned bright white, to where it was only one solid mass of color. Frame four, nothing. Frame five, the mass of white reappeared at his destination. Frame six, all color except his eyes returned, they still being white. Frame seven, normal again.

On his third scan of the area, Robin noticed Reflex. To tell the truth, so did everyone else, because he didn't just simply _appear_ this time. He seemed to show up _in force_. His materialization was marked with a large shockwave and a loud burst of sound, akin to someone cracking a whip. The burst of energy knocked Beast Boy back, the green teen tripping on a rock and spilling backward, while the rest felt a large blast of air.

At first they weren't sure it was Reflex. The hero that stood before them was more defined, disciplined, more powerful looking. Also, the red and black costume kind of threw them off. But the instant he smiled, that trademark shit-eating, I-know-something-you-don't-know-grin, they knew it was him. "What do you think? I can do that on command now. Thank the suit," he added, snapping the fabric on the palm of his hand.

They were all dumbfounded. Finally, Cyborg spoke up. "Reflex, is that really you?"

He held a hand up, and silenced the cybernetic teen. "It's not Reflex anymore. Reflex is, was, my military tag. I'm a Titan now. So call me-" he said, pausing mid sentence to teleport into the air, this time without the burst effect. He came streaking down in a flash of white, and slammed feet first into the rock, which cracked and crumbled under is feet. He looked up from his landing, and posed with his arms out, bracing against a wind that wasn't there. "Call me Jack Rapid."


	18. Halloween

Author's Note: This Chapter is almost entirely filler. It's a Halloween special that I've been wanting to do since I started this fanfic, and dammit, I'm doing it. Also, I wanted a nice, humor filled chapter before the final throw-down. (And yes, this story is coming to a close, but don't worry, I'm writing sequels.) The main reason for this, aside from the fact that I wanted to and I'm the writer, so there, is that I wanted to put in a chapter full of laughs and good feeling before I throw the ending at you. One reader, who I shall not mention for the sake of privacy *cough*OhMyGoshsickles*cough*, asked if anyone is going to die during this fanfic. I can not tell you yes or no, because that would be HORRIBLE spoiler, but I can assure you, for a few brief moments between Chapters, YOU WILL HATE ME. (_EPIC FORESHADOWING). _But have fun with this!

Oh, also, this Chapter is going back to the format of Reflex, now Jack Rapid, telling the story, because I couldn't take much more of the third person thing. Also, there's no need, now that you know what his big plan was. And near the end, it is going to be very graphic, hence the new M rating I put in earlier. I figures this was the best chapter to write this in, because after reading a similar scence between two different characters in a story called Raven's Game (check my favorites, it's one of the best I've come across), I felt... 'inspired' to do the same. If sex scenes make you uncomfortable, or it just doesn't sound like something you'd want to read, then feel free to skip everything after the sentence "Boy still can't make a balloon animal to save his life, though." Just a warning.

Chapter 18

"Why in the name of the gods are we even celebrating Halloween?!" I yell at the roof. I'm laying on my bed, with my head in Jinx's lap, while she runs her hand through my hair. SO, really, I'm kind of yelling at her. No, wait, wait, can't do that. Yep, yelling at the ceiling.

"Because we have all of the preparations that we could possibly put together done already, everyone's back in the tower, and it's fun." She ran a hand down my chest, and dug her fingers into my stomach. Padding and six-pack or no, that woman knows how to _hurt._

"Ow ow ow! Ok, ok, I'll enjoy it! Now stop digging at me!" She grins and leans in for a good, deep kiss. God I love this woman. I had to chase her down across the country and buy her a Cat's Eye necklace to get her, but it's worth every second, every penny. Plus, she's like, the best I've ever had. _You_ know what I mean.

"Good," she grins. "Now lets go pick out a costume."

"I already have a costume, and it's lodged _in me!_ There's no way in hell I'm taking this thing off and putting it back on just for a few hours of fun I'mnotevensureI'mgoingtoenjoy." I run the last part of that sentence together to get the point across, and she gives me a look. Not just any look, THE Look. You know the one. "No. Not even for the look. This thing is more painful to take off than it is to put on, and putting it on was the most physically painful thing I've ever done in my life."

"Most _physically _painful?" She asks, standing up, and dragging me with her. "If it's as bad as you say, what could hurt more than that?"

I wrap my arms around her waist, and pull her as close as I possibly can. "You have no idea how much it hurts to see you walk out a door, thinking you'll never come back."

I'm about to kiss her to emphasize my point, when I hear from my doorway, "Aww, isn't that sweet? Now suck it up and get that costume off, I don't care how much it hurts, your girlfriend spent two days trying to find you a good costume, and dammit, you're putting it on!"

I glance angrily at the door to see a very agitated BumbleBee giving me a look of her own. She and Jinx had become very good friends while they were on the same team. The rest of Titans East, as well as the acting members of the Young Guardians, had joined us at Titans tower, with some of the other Auxiliary Titans who could afford to drop by. Everyone had come here to celebrate, and they weren't going to let me ruin their fun.

So I decide to have a little fun of my own, if they were going to make me suffer through this crap. Following Bee and Jinx down the hall, I pass Kid Flash, currently dressed as Mercury, the messenger of the gods, and tell him to gather everyone in the common room in five minutes. "Hey girls?" I ask sweetly, and they give me a look.

Bee doesn't look endeared. "What, Rapid?"

"Can we drop by the common room first? There's something I need to share with everyone first."

They trade glances, and decide to humor me.

"Ok, everyone," I say, waving my hands to get my audience's attention. Kid Flash had gathered all of the heroes in the tower for me, at a rate only he (or I) could accomplish. We've gotten to be pretty good friends, lately. "Most of you have been asking me why I haven't taken the costume off yet, even though it's been more than a day since I put it on. Let me clarify three things: one, this suit is self cleaning. Two, and I know this is probably more information than any of you need, but it is designed to be removed just enough that use of the bathroom is not an issue. So I really have no need to take it off. Ever. And I really, _really_ don't want to."

"Why not?" Speedy (currently dressed as Robin Hood) asks me. "I mean, it does look good, but not _that_ good."

"That's why I've gathered you all here. I'm going to show you why I do not like taking this thing off, or putting it on. The primary function of this suit is to enhance my powers. And to do so, it is _attached_ to me. Taking it off hurts more than almost anything I've ever had to to in my life. Technically, much, _much_, more so, but emotional pain is a much different animal. So, just putting it on, and not attaching the neural networking, is kind of pointless. I didn't jump through hoops, train relentlessly, and risk relationships with almost everyone I know just to get a suit that looks good. By the way, thank you to everyone who made a contribution to this effort. It is all greatly appreciated."

"Just get on with it," yelled Pantha, who was wearing a Chupacabra costume.

"Fine. I'm having you all gather here, because I'm going to show you how much this thing freaking hurts, and I'm not doing it any more than I have to." I clap my hands together, and rub my palms, to gear myself up for this. This is going to suck. "Pay attention, you guys," I say, flicking open the compartment in my goggles that hides the switch. I do not want this thing being triggered on accident. I take a deep breath, and press the button.

As I expected, the pain is unbearable. My entire nervous system starts to freak out as metal is ripped out of my body, my eye sockets, my _spine. _Millions of tiny pinpricks sear with pain throughout my body as the neural net detaches itself. Bone scrapes, muscle tears, and needles and spikes and probes are pulled out of every portion of my body. My mind nearly blanks out multiple times as agony rears through my entire being. Just as my mind reaches a vital breaking point, it all stops, and I regain awareness of my surroundings, opening my eyes to notice that Jinx is cradling my head in her lap, and tears are streaming down her face. I feel the cool, relaxing sensation of the suits cleaning system run across my entire body, cleansing probably a gallon or two of sweat from my skin.

She smacks me in the face a couple times, and I notice that I'm not breathing. I take a deep gulp of air, and sit bolt upright, my chest screaming at me from the rapid intake of oxygen. It takes me a second or two to stand up, and I turn to see all of the other heroes, save for Raven and Robin, who had also rushed to stand next to me, staring at me in quiet terror. "Ta-fuckity-dah," I quip, grinning lazily at them.

Beast boy is the first to speak. And the kid's dressed as a clown. My gods. "Dude, that was, harsh. I've never seen anyone scream like that. You hit the _ground_, man."

Jinx wraps me in a hug, and I notice she's dressed as Alice from Lewis Carroll's story. It's cute. She even took the ribbons out of her hair, and is letting it drape around her face. To good efect, I might add. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sososo sorry. We thought you were faking at first, but then Raven started screaming to, practically begging someone to turn you off, and we all figured out how bad it must be. I had no idea it would hurt that badly, I thought FreeBoard was exaggerating about the screaming, but, oh my god, I'm so sorry."

Raven just stands in front of me. Interestingly enough, she's dressed as what I can only assume is Morgana, from the Merlin legends. And I'm in just enough of a solid state of mind to notice that she does it _very_ well. "I've never felt anyone in such anguish before. The fact that you're still standing is a testament to how much you've grown since you got here. I think, if you'd have been made to do that when you first joined the team, you would have gone crazy. I know I almost did just now. Please, if you ever have to do that again, don't do it around me."

"Well, now you know," I sigh, trying to smile. "Look, I'm not mad at any of you or anything, and I didn't do that just to show off, or scare you, or anything like that. But you guys needed to know. And it's not exactly something I want to keep secret."

I look up at the rest of the large group, and see a large wave of agreement and consolatory murmurs pass through the crowd. My vision starts to blur as the adrenaline washes away. Right before I pass out I crack, "For my next trick..."

"Should we wake him now?"

"Not a good idea, he's only been out for a few minutes."

"No wonder he didn't want to tell us he was doing this, the guy's freaking crazy."

"Crazy?! Try totally whacked out cuckoo-labonza!"

"How bout not?" I murmur, returning to consciousness. I awaken to find myself laid out on the couch, most of the team scattered around me. Most of my normal team, plus Jinx, are all standing around me, minus Terra. "Hey, where's the Blonde Judas? I want to see her costume."

Cyborg speaks up, "Hey man, you may be having a crappy day, but don't go dissin' on people like that."

"Fine, fine. Where's Brickface Barbie? I want to see her costume." I hear a couple of giggles from that. Still got it. I sit up and get a good look at my team. Robin seems to be dressed up as a cheap James Bond knock-off, while Starfire is pulling off a cheerleader outfit almost a little too well. Beast Boy clown, check. Jinx Alice, check. Raven sexy Morgana, double check. Hey, just because I have a girlfriend doesn't mean I can't appreciate the finer things in life. Like cleavage. I look over at Cyborg before it becomes at all obvious that I'm staring, and my jaw almost hits the floor.

"The Hulk. You have GOT to be KIDDING ME. The _HULK?!_ Do you want Stan Lee to sue your ass?!"

"Hey, man, I like the Hulk."

"So do I, but I'm not a walking advertisement for copyright infringement!"

"Whatever man. So, how you feeling?"

"Much better," I tell him, pulling a very worried Jinx into my lap. "SO, what's this costume that I'm not allowed to pass up?" I ask her.

"Well, after all of that, it doesn't seem like a very good idea."

"Hey, I just went through hells and high waters so you could dress me up. Don't belittle my efforts by saying the costume sucks."

She giggled at that, and stood up. "Ok, I'll be right back. Go take a look at the other costumes while I'm getting it together." She runs off in the direction of what has become _our_ room. SO I stand up, and walk around what I now notice is a totally tricked out living room. Streamers, Jack-o-Lanterns, the works. They really went all out for today. I am officially impressed. Especially with some of the costumes, I notice as I walk around. Mas y Menos as Tweedledee and Tweedledum, pint sized. Aqualad as a very regal-looking Poseidon. Freeboard actually had the gal to dress up as Gear. I can only assume he called the whizkid before making that choice. Siphon, who I stop to talk to, is dressed as an Immortal from Highlander, while Portal, his current conversation buddy, is dressed as Dr. Strange. "Looking good, boys," I remark, pouring myself a glass of soda.

"Jhonas, you are a total psycho. Do you have to put that thing on and take it off every day?" Siphon takes the first opportunity he gets to lay into me.

"No Alastor, just every couple of days, to replace the internal power pack. And thanks for caring."

"You're welcome." He smirks at me, to let me know he's still himself. Good.

Portal is a little more placating. "I'm sorry you have to go through that, Ref-Rapid. Sorry, it'll take some time to get used to the name."

"Don't worry, I'm still working on it, too. Love the outfit. You teaming up with Cyborg for some kind of anit-Stan Lee lawsuit brigade?"

"No."

I shrug, defeated by Captain Apathy. "You're no fun, dude." I walk away, and let them get back to their conversation, which, from what I can piece together, is something about how powerful one would be if they had Captain America's supersoldier serum, spider powers, and The Guyver. They are so going to get us sued. I walk around and notice Kunoichi and Gothica, and take a moment to say hi to both of them.

"So, Jack, I hear you just can't keep it in your pants, can you?" Kunoichi remarks. It figures, I hadn't seen her more than once since Kid Infernity raised hell for us.

"Siphon's over there," I snap, jabbing a thumb behind me. Her eye twitches, but she disappears into the floor. I have just enough time to register that she's dressed as an adult Hinata from Naruto: Shippuden. I look down at Gothica, expecting to see a pout or a look of disappointment or something, but instead I get a smirk and a pose. "I'll bet she's pretty good at it, too," she says, waggling her eyebrows. Interestingly enough, she's dressed as Disgaea's Etna.

"Kid, we have got to figure out this multiple personality thing. It's starting to mess with me."

She leans into me, and looks up at me with bg round eyes, and pouts slightly. "Don't worry, all of them like you."

I take a step back for personal safety more than anything, but partly because I'm used to this girl being shy, quiet, and easily embarrassed. Not dressed in a demonic two-piece and hitting on me. "You might want to NOT use me as an example when it comes to stuff like that. Just because I had sex when I was fifteen does not mean YOU have to have sex when you're fifteen."

"Who'd you sleep with when you were fifteen?" she asks me, raising an eyebrow. I take a second to answer that question, and notice several people staring at me.

Not wanting to disappoint, I say simply, "My drill sergeant."

I hear a loud cough behind me, and turn to see Jinx with some black fabric draped over her arm. "And who would this woman be?" She asks me.

I don't miss a beat. Taking a step to her, plus or minus one teleport, I wrap an arm around her waist, and tell her, "History." I give her a deep kiss to drive home the point.

After she comes up for air, she stammers, "W-well. I've got you're, uh, you're costume! Yeah! That's it." I take the fabric from her, and walk back to my bedroom, with Jinx trailing behind me. I hear a few 'lucky bastards' on my way out, but don't care.

About thirty minutes later, I'm admiring my girlfriends taste in twisted, sick, and alarmingly appropriate Halloween costumes. "You, my lady, are one messed up woman. I love it."

She smiles at me, and I catch her grin in the reflection, before turning around to give her a hug. "I knew you'd love it. So was it worth it?"

"The costume? Almost. The crazy-wild animal sex? Totally."

"What crazy-wild-" she cuts off when I raise an eyebrow at her. "Oh," she finishes in realization, before I pick her up and drop her on the bed.

I step out into the main room, just in time to notice the sun is setting, and the real party can begin. "Ladies and gentlemen!" I yell at the crowd. The majority tuns to look at me. A couple of jaws drop at my costume, and I get a few smiles, and a very distinct, "Duuuuuuude."

I grin out at all of them. "Let's get this party outside! Johnny The Homicidal Maniac has arrived!" I punctuate my entrance with a maniacal laugh of evil awesomeness.

The party was a huge success, and more than enough to get us geared up for the big night tomorrow. With the large amount of trick-or-treaters we had come in on the boat, like we do every year, I got plenty of chances to terrify small children, and Beast Boy made it better with some awesome clown moves. Boy still can't make a balloon animal to save his life, though.

I've already taken my costume off, and am in the process of putting my uniform on, when a nibble on my left ear tells me that that would be very unwise. "After all the crap you put me though today, I want it more than once," a throaty, mischievous voice whispers into my neck. Ooh, shivers. You've had your trick, now give me my treat."

I turn around to see a half-naked pink haired sorceress posing very delicately in front of my bed. Gods, I love me. "Well, that depends, Alice," I quip, teleporting behind her, and grabbing her in a firm bearhug, while I nip at her ear. "Do you want me to play the Caterpillar," I run a hand down her spin, slowly, holding her in place with my other arm. She shudders slightly, and I stop at her tailbone, running my hand over her smooth rear end. "Or do you want me to play the Cheshire Cat?" I squeeze her soft bottom firmly, using my other hand to take her breast into my palm, and squeeze there to. To top it all off, I bite at her neck, sucking on her pale skin.

She moans slightly, and when I finally release her neck from my mouth, she whispers, be a bad kitty for me, I'm feeling _festive_." She whips around and pushes me onto the bed, following soon after. Her pink lace underwear does wonders from this angle to get me going, I can barely hold myself back. She straddles my hips, running a nail along my chest, digging in just enough to pull some blood to the surface. It stings like hell, but it's the _good_ kind of hurt. I don't stay down for long, though. Sitting up rapidly, I pin right arm with my left, wrapping it around her back, and grab her left arm with that hand. I use my free hand to press a couple of fingers against the fabric on her panties, drawing small circles in the cotton. She tilts her head back and sighs intensely, and I take the opportunity to go back to work on her neck.

After a few minutes of rubbing her gender through her panties, I slide my hand under the fabric, and run a finger around her clit. I spend a few minutes there, releasing my grip on her arms, and snapping loose her bra with a few fingers. "You've had practice doing that," she says between gasps, and flings her arms around me, pulling me hungrily into a kiss. It's almost primal, and I love it. I use my now free hand to rub her breasts for a few moments, then trace my finger around the edges of her nipples. After a few indicative moans, I decide to give them more attention, and start to use my mouth. Taking her mound between my teeth, I suck at her gently, and work a finger into her. Her arms clamp around my head, and I can tell she doesn't want me to stop any time soon. I trace my tongue across her chest, first the left, then the right, running my hand down to her ass and squeezing gently, pulling her into my other hand.

After a few moments of working her sensitive spots, running my hand up and down her side, and down the small of her back, one finger turns into two, then three. She grabs my wrist with one hand, wrapping the other into my hair as if she's trying to anchor herself on this Plane of existence, and urges me on a little. Then a lot more. Then... "I need more than fingers. Come on, take me."

My gods I love this woman.

The next morning, I wake up with a very naked, and very beautiful pink-haired sorceress laying on top of me, snoozing contentedly. I move to roll out from under her, then remember that we'd passed out almost immediately after a joint finish. So I'm kind of stuck. I ruffle my hand through her hair to wake up, and she gives me a lazy smile. "So, where did you learn that bra trick?"

"I can also do it through silk blouses, nightgowns, evening dresses, and, on a good day, through a bulletproof vest." She smacks my chest, and moves to roll off of me, only to realize the same thing I did. She moans quietly as the movement hits what I can only assume to be a very sensitive area, and stares at me hungrily. "We're not getting up any time soon, are we?"

She decides to answer with a heavy moan and a lot of tongue.


	19. Final Battle Part 1

Chapter 19

The only thing scarier than watching a bomb go off is waiting for it to happen. In my absence, Raven (with Robin's help), had put together an _actual_ battle plan for this evening. It comprised mainly of battle strategies, infiltration techniques, and preparing for any random surprises the Riddler and Slade may have laid out for us. The big goal was for me to get Siphon, FreeBoard, and Obsidiant to the supply of negative energy used for the bomb, for Siphon to drain as much as he could out at a time, and pump it back into Obsidiant. We'd tested this idea beforehand, of course, and found that the walking negative energy bomb could, in fact, re-store his own energy. And Siphon had finally mastered the ability to store energy _in _objects, not just throwing it at them. My big part was playing defense for them while they went about this teaspoon-to-empty-a-well task, which would take quite awhile. FreeBoard was to take a crack at disabling the bomb manually if we failed.

Robin had figured that the bomb was set on a timer, with a remote detonator elsewhere in case the timer failed. Raven, Beast Boy, Portal, and The Herald's jobs were to track down the remote detonator(s), and disable them. Robin, Starfire, Cyborg and Powerhouse were to go after Slade, and Kunoichi, Jinx, and a volunteer Alicia were to track down the Riddler. The rest of the Titans we brought with us were divided amongst anti-security teams, strike teams, and a backup squad in case on of our major groups fell. We had received some offers of help from some other teen heroes, as well as a couple of JL members, but Raven (Robin) refused their help. According to them, if we'd ut any more people into this mission, we wouldn't have enough to cover any other areas that might need protection while we were away.

We've holed up in a secondary base established by Robin a few years ago, right outside Gotham City. And apparently it's almost as big as the Tower. Just not shaped like a letter. Thank god. Most of the team is setting up in the briefing room, receiving their assignments if they haven't already, and working out the details if they have. My team's job is pretty straightforward, so me and the guys are taking one last moment to relax before we take the plunge. FreeBoard is taking the opportunity to walk me through _all_ of the crap that he put in my suit.

"The first thing we need to go over is your goggles. You already know that the 'bad' switch is on the right frame," he air quotes the word 'bad', because we all know what that piece of shit does. "But the left frame has some other options. You'll notice three buttons on the side, lined up top to bottom. Those are the different modes of vision your goggles give you. The first is Utility. In that mode, the controls on your left wrist will activate Thermal Vision, Nightvision, X-Ray, Bluray Spectrum, Ultraviolet, and Echolocation."

I blink at him. "These can do all of that? Really?"

He grins at me. "I'm not done. The second I installed is called 360. It's relatively simple, using a combination of microcameras located throughout the suit, and in conjunction with the Echolocation feature, it gives you basically a top-down third person view of yourself. Like in a video game, except the camera angle doesn't change, and it doesn't pan to the other side of a wall. Think like Infamous or Prototype, except topdown instead of directly behind you."

I whistle appreciatively, "Very nice."

"Oh, if you like that, you're going to love the last setup. I call it Resonance mode. There's good and bad when it comes to this tech, but you've already done the bad. This ability accounts for three of your eight spinal taps."

I twitch at him, and start to growl.

"Oh, piss off. Look, Resonance mode is the most difficult thing I've ever had to program. It works in combination with high-frequency sonar, sound relay interpretation, light refracturing and projection, even air density. This style project directly into your brain, because it gives you the ability to see through any camera on your person at any time. The reason I didn't just loop that through the goggles is because you'd have to hit like a million buttons to cycle through. Look, just hit the bottom button on the left side."

I grunt at him, and do as he says. Instantly, my vision goes straight black, then back to normal.

"Ok, now try to move your eyes. Look, I tested this stuff myself _thank you_, a while back, when my parents were working on a spynet contract for Star Labs."

I shrug and look to the left, but instead of that weird strain you get in your eyes, it's like my whole head was turning. I tried to move my eyes down, and my point of view lowered to my shoulder. Looking to the left, it spun around to my back. I blinked a few times, but no change. "Ok, how the hell do I reset the orientation?"

"Close your eyes for two seconds."

I do so, and when they open again, my vision is back to normal. FreeBoard continues his tutorial. "You can also activate any of the abilities in Utility Mode through Resonance, but it takes a lot more power, so use it sparingly. I know you have some spare power cells on you, but we don't know what the hell's going to happen. There are three other things you need to know about your goggles before we move on to the rest of the suit. First off, is the software algorithm, which is programmed to do one thing: Hack. It has every possible crack-and-hackware program on the planet loaded into it, and can run through all of them in seconds, without even physically connecting to the circuit. It's a modified form of Wi-Fi, that allows for frequency matching and data projection at an unbelievable rate. I won't go into all of the semantics with you, because your head will explode, but it also has a video detection unit, so you can see if you're being spied on, and gives you awareness of any video loops you might want to tap into. It also scans the feed beforehand, to make sure it isn't a recording. With villains as smart as The Riddler and Slade against us, they're probably going to expect some hacking, and have said up looped feeds as dummies for your powers.

"The second, is that they also act as anti-flash goggles, welding goggles, are airtight, and, if you press the button above the bridge of your nose," he said, tapping my goggles. A lightweight mask slid down over my mouth. "It gives you a gas mask with half an hour's air supply. Also, the entire suit is waterproof. Not water-resistant, water proof. That's one of the big reasons I wanted to use power paths instead of electrical wiring. So yes, you can swim just fine in it, for up to half an hour. And the tank replenishes when the entire suit is surfaced, so you aren't limited to one half an hour period. There's a little indicator in the top right corner of your field of vision that's there in every mode, that indicates air supply. The bottom left is power, the top left tells you what mode your in, and the bottom right is a vitals indicator. It measures stress levels, physical damage, brainwave activity, and about a dozen other things to give you a very accurate readout of your current physical status. Yes, yes, Rapid, I did as you asked."

I'm practically shaking in happiness. He knows how much of a gamer I can be. "You gave me an HP BAR!" I lunge at him and force a hug on him. Letting him go for air, I start playing with some of the bottoms, to memorize where they are, what they do, and how long it takes me to get to them. After playing with them for awhile, FreeBoard coughs for attention.

"There's some other stuff I've thrown into the suit, too. The first, which you already know about, is the kinetic-reactive padding. It basically redistributes and impact you receive over a wide radius, as opposed to compacting it solely on the point of origin. Siphon's idea, actually."

I nod to my best friend. "Thanks for helping to save my ass, buddy."

"You're welcome. And please don't refer to your ass around me again."

"ANYway," FreeBoard interrupts, before we can get too far into our arguments. "The second accounts for two more of your eight spinal taps. It's a feed of artificial adrenaline, which will automatically kick in when, for lack of a better term, you're at half-health. It's going to feel like you're on crack, speed, and Monster Hitman. But don't waste it, because there is a limited supply. If you don't want to use it after it's triggered, the button on the inside of your left wrist," he slides back a metal plate, revealing a small orange button. "Deactivates the adrenaline tap. You can reactivate it with the same button."

"So what's the third thing?"

"Well, you've already used part of it, the acceleration technique. It's your suit's ability to manipulate your powers into performing outside their norm. That's the other three spinal taps. It allows for acceleration, the burst effect you used, cloaked teleportation, flickering, and reactive teleporting."

"Ok, I get most of those, but what's flickering and cloaked teleportation?"

"Flickering is basically a rapid-fire of your abilities, which phases you in and out of the same spot. The suit won't let you use it in water, or any other substance that would fill the space you left after you disappeared, to prevent that crap from showing up _inside you. _It's basically used as a distraction technique, and to accelerate normal movement. It puts you at about one and a half speed for anything you do. There's also a proximity failsafe, like if you're going to punch something, the flicker will disable within an inch of impact, so you don't accidentally flicker into the thing. The failsafe doesn't trigger if you're standing next to an inanimate object, and your not moving towards it. But if the suit detects any level of movement at all, it will turn off the ability automatically within an inch of impact.

"Cloaked teleportation is kind of tricky. It's one of the abilities tapped into your field of vision,, and the various sight modes you have. The suit has the ability to read vital signs of anyone in the area, as well as reading camera angles and other sensors. Cloaked teleportation will map out the area you're teleporting to, and put you in the closest spot to where you want to be, that gives no one line of sight to you, that's out of camera range, and that will not set off any sensors. It takes a few seconds to kick in, because it has to process a great deal of data."

I pause for a second, going over the notes he's handed me, with finer details on all of my powers, my suit's abilities, and everything else it can do. Area chemical analysis, that triggers my gas mask if it detects any mind-altering, poisonous, or otherwise hazardous gases, liquids, or forms of energy. This suit has everything. No wonder it hurts so damn much to put on.

"As a closing note, the entire thing is heat and cold resistant from 20 degrees Kelvin, to 3000 degrees Fahrenheit, and has heating and conditioning systems for all temperature extremes."

"And you built all of this in two weeks?"

"No, Star Labs has stuff just like this, and way more potent, efficient, whatever you want to call it. I spent two weeks adapting the good stuff to the neuralnet equipment my parents were working on. Thank god the military had already designed you a power tap suit, or this would've taken me months."

"Thank god for small favors..."

After spending a large amount of time drooling and marveling over all of the equipment my new suit can do, I found a tutorial program in the suit itself, than ran me through practices for all of my abilities, and all of the equipment the suit had, testing everything, then running a diagnostic on myself, and the suit. I grabbed a couple of power cells from Replica, and asked her and her twin to distribute more of them to the other teams, in case I ran out and needed a recharge mid-mission. I couldn't help but notice how much like a bad-ass video game this was turning out to be. After about two more hours of run-throughs, last minute training, and system checks, it was six pm. Four hours until we made our move, and six till the ball dropped. I tracked down the rest of the group, having a very large meal comprised of every fast food on the planet.

I took a seat with Jinx and Gothica, who both saw fit to cling to my arms, making it very difficult to eat. I couldn't help but notice death glares pass in front of me for the large part of a few minutes, before I shook them both off. "Look, this isn't going to work." I turned to Gothica. "Kid, I like you. A lot. But you're like a crazy little sister to me. You're four years my junior, and I already have a girlfriend. This isn't really going to work. And I don't want to sit here and be the main character in a bad anime plot." She looks up at me pleadingly, but I just shake my head at her.

"Dammit," she grumbles, and stalks off to sit by Kunoichi, who is currently not leaving Siphon alone. Lord knows what she'd going to be like mid-mission if we get in trouble.

Jinx stares at me. "Did you really have to be that harsh?"

"That was not harsh, and besides, would you rather I lead her on for lord knows how long? Nuh-uh, not gonna happen." My hands free, I take a slice or four of pizza, and a couple cheeseburgers, and stack my plate high. "God, I'm starving. Haven't had anything to eat since last night."

"Speaking of which, you still haven't told me who taught you that bra thing. And bullet-proof vests? How the hell do you do that?"

As if on cue, Alicia comes strolling over to our side of the very large T-Shaped table we've set our cardiac-arrest buffet on, and takes Gothica's old seat. She gives Jinx a once-over, and shrugs. "So this is your new girlfriend, Jhonas?" She asks brazenly, stealing a slice off my plate.

Jinx glares daggers at her. "And who are you?"

"I'm his old girlfriend. Oh, don't worry. I'm not after him, too much red tape just to see each other. But I have to say," she adds, turning to me, "Your taste certainly hasn't degraded at all. I like her. Snappy, lithe, and I'm willing to bet flexible as hell."

Jinx blushes furiously. "Well, good to know I don't have to watch out for you."

Alicia shrugs. "I wouldn't say that. Hey, Jhonas, you wouldn't happen to know anything about that 'FreeBoard' kid, would you?"

I just sigh at her. "Yes, he's single. Yes he likes girls. Yes he's interested in you. And YES," I add, pointing a finger at her nose, she wriggles it cutely, and I have to grin, "he has clearance. That's the prodigy of Star Labs. Apparently he was tested for metahuman genes, and he's got like a Level Seven IQ. And he's one of the biggest adrenaline junkies I've ever met."

She stares over at him, and purrs. "I know who I'M talking to next," she mewls, her cat ears and tail popping up. She walks away on all fours, a slice of pizza in her mouth."

I turn back to Jinx. "THAT," I tell her, jabbing a thumb at Alicia, "is who taught me the bra trick. As well as several others."

She raises a very concerned eyebrow, and resumes eating.

I talk to a few more people during dinner, and scan around the room, taking a rare opportunity to people-watch, one of my old favorite hobbies. I notice a lot of little details, helped along by some of the vision features my goggles have. I notice Robin with Starfire in his lap, talking to BB and Raven, who have their arms around each other. The first pair seem to have elevated heart rates, and slowly decreasing burst of adrenaline. I figure quietly that they must have had some fun before dinner. I give the latter couple a once over, and notice, after zooming in, that Raven seems to have a pair of very tny bite marks on her neck, as if from a small cat. Interesting....

The rest of the room proves to be as entertaining as our heroes. Terra seems to be spending her time chatting up Aqualad, who, and this surprised me not at all, doesn't seem interested. Speedy, however, does. And he also looks P.O.'ed. I stiffle a laugh, and Jinx asks me what's up, so I point at the unfortunate trio. She raises a hand to her eyes and squints, then snickers quietly. We talk about those three for a moment, then she points out Kid Flash. I take a look over to my new buddy, and see him paying a great of attention to Replica and Morph. I have to admit, he has good taste. The two denim clad brunettes seem to like him just fine, too. After a brief once over of the room, I notice Mas y Menos making a nuisance of themselves around Wildebeast and Pantha, so I snap my fingers a few times, and shout in Spanish at them. "_(In Spanish)_ Hey midgets! Leave those two alone and come here for a moment!"

"_(I.S.) _What do you want?" asks Mas.

_"(I.S.) _We're busy." Menos snaps at me.

"_(I.S.) _I just thought you might want to know that Kid Flash told me the other day he could wipe the floor with you two in a race. Maybe you should go bug him around his new female friends." I wink at them, and they get mischievous gins on their faces, and race over to Flash. I hear a rush of Spanish, and the twins ooing over the midget pair. Kid Flash glares at me, and I wave back.

Jinx just chuckles at me, while I notice a small amount of staring from the people who didn't know that I'm multilingual. "You're horrible."

"I'm damn funny."

Ten o'clock rolls around, whether we want it too or not, and Raven (Robin) has posted us in various spots all around Arkham Asylum. We've received confirmation that Riddler and Slade have indeed seized the majority of the compound, and set most of the low-profile prisoners and psychotics free. Everyone else, however, such as Ivy, Joker, and Mister Freeze, have received the utmost attention from the security guards, with protection in their holding areas tripled. It also seems that there are a few Sladebots posted amongst the guard. Apparently our villains don't want this party interrupted any more than we do.

Everything is pretty straightforward to start off. We all make our way into the compound from various angles, with moderate resistance. My team, led by moi, are coming in from the roof. I use my new goggles to hack into a security wire that leads to an active feed to the top floor of the sanitarium, and pop in the guys one at a time. I've set up connections with their uniforms, including their own personal cameras, so that I can pop to their location whenever necessary. We make our way down one of the main halls on the upper floors, taking out small patrols of Sladebots as we go. I'd go into detail, but it's nothing you haven't already seen before. We get to a flight of stairs that ends in a heavy metal door, and FreeBoard holds up a hand. "Let me check this out." He hops on his hoverboard, and glides over, taking out a small toolkit. He works with the door for a few moments, gives it a few scans with some devices I don't recognize, and gives us a thumbs-up, and pulls out what looks like a small bomb.

He does his thing, we stay clear of the boom, and when the dust clears, the door looks severely damaged, but it still hasn't fallen out of it's frame. Siphon moves to blast it, but I stop him for a second. "Let me try this out." I work with the controls for my suit for a second, and flex my legs a little. Focusing on a spot directly in front of the door, I manually trigger my charged teleport, and slam my foot into the metal. It's such a rush, using that ability. And it's getting easier and easier to do. The door hits the floor with a satisfying clang, and reveals a small horde of Sladebots on the other side, which Siphon proceeds to blow to little mechanical giblets.

I glance over my shoulder at a now-smirking Siphon. "Thanks, pal."

"You're welcome."

I pull out my comm and touch base with the rest of the team, now that we've reached some of the lower levels. Robin and his team are chasing down Slade, and Raven's team have taken out a couple of remote detonation spots. With only an hour and a half left, though, we need to be making more progress faster. I hack a nearby security camera with the help of my little A.I. Buddy, who I have affectionately christened Emily, and trace the feed back to the main security hub. From there, I track down a large congregation of heroes and bots, located in the cafeteria. I also notice a very large device in the center of the room, which, considering the large black canisters wired into it, could only be the Negative Energy bomb. I make an attempt to use my Cloaked Teleportation ability, only to discover that the feed is set one second behind, making it impossible for me to just pop in. I take a moment to map the camera feeds leading from the cafeteria, finding a couple of spots close by with active feeds, and report my findings.

"No doubt Slade and Riddler knew you were coming, and didn't want you taking the easy way in. Something tells me this is going to be much harder than we think," FreeBoard summarizes.

"No duh," I smirk, and pop us into a nearby hallway, about a floor away from the device. We make our way through about a million Sladebots, and carve a path to the security room right before the cafeteria. That's when the shit really hit the fan. We take one step int an otherwise clean room, and we fall into a traphole. Another _fucking_ traphole! As soon as we land on the _next_ floor, the door above us closes, and the room around us lights up, in bright neon g_reen_, loaded with black questions marks.

"I. _Hate. _THIS. _VILLAIN!"_

After a few minutes of blindly feeling our way around the obnoxiously lit room, FreeBoard sits in a corner, waiting for us to figure out what this room does. Siphon is trying to find any kind of energy supply that leads to the collapsible roof to drain off so we can jury rig it open. It's not working. Obsidiant isn't really helpful, and my suit isn't doing anything to help. Even with all of the modifications, I can't see out of this damn room, or past these walls. At this point I'm bashing at pieces of wall, trying to break open the sides. After a few more minutes, I smack my hand against part of the wall, and feel the wall give way a little. I look down, and see the dot at the base of the largest question mark sink into the wall a little. I push it farther into the wall, and a chunk of wall on the other side of the room sinks into the floor. The rest of the group walks through, and I follow, shaking my head at the simplicity.

It turns out almost all of the rooms are like this, as we trek through a maze of room after room. Some of them have simple riddles, others are much more complex, and some are just plain annoying. You know that game where you have a grid of lit and unlit buttons, and when you press one, it and all the ones surrounding it change? We go through three of those in various sizes. It sucks. We eventually make our way to the security room on the other side of the cafeteria, meeting up with a large group of Titans who seem to have trouble making their way through the door.

A further look reveals Raven, Robin, and Kunoichi standing in front of a very frustrating electrical door, looking more than a little pissed off. "So, electrical door giving you trouble?" I smirk. They all glare at me.

Raven snaps at me, "Look, Kunoichi can't phase anywhere through these rooms, they've hollowed out the walls so she can't make a complete entry. I can't phase through with my powers either, the mental instability of all of these inmates is wreaking havoc on my powers, so I've had to mentally disable them completely. Robin's tech doesn't do anything to these doors, so you have to do something effective."

I stare at the door for a moment, while Siphon can't even drain it, because it's true negatively charged energy. He can only absorb positive energy, because that's what kind of energy he already has in him. Apparently it's almost killed him before to try this before. I can barely see past the door, and not enough to make a teleport attempt. FreeBoard starts picking at the tech around the door, and somebody has the sense to ask what fucking time it is. I look at the time display in the corner of my display, and freak out a little.

"Um, it's 11:45." I look at the door, look at the team, and get a very good idea. "Hey Siphon, you can pump energy into anything that holds a charge, right?"

He gives me a glance, and by his expression recognizes the look on my face. "What are you planning?"

I have the majority of the team take a few large steps back, and take the spare power cell that Raven was given, handing it to Siphon. "Ok, drain the crap out of that, then," I take one of Robin's exploding disks, "pump it into this. All of it. Without making it explode. Don't worry if you brak one or two, he has spare."

"Yes, but I don't have any spare me's."

"So don't fuck up."

"Great, thanks." He drains every drop out of the spare power cell, and takes Robin's disk into his hand. He starts feeding it in slowly, and the disk starts to glow. He fedds it in a little faster at a time, creating larger and larger circuits, and eventually the disk starts to shake, and looks ready to break apart. Just as the disk looks ready to explode, I yell from behind him, "Pull!" and he flings the disk forward. The positively overcharged disk meats the field of negative energy, and the result is one of the largest explosions I've ever survived. And the only reason I survive, I notice, is a large steel wall that wasn't there. I look over at a very unsteady FreeBoard, who is gripping two steel bars attached to the wall with his life.

"And that (puff) is why (puff) I have (puff) the board (puff)."

"Really, I thought you had the board because it looks cool, and it's fun to fly around on. And the gadgets, and the tech. And you're an adrenaline junkie. I could go on."

"Shut (puff) up."

Robin glares at me. "Doesn't Siphon have a whole bunch of power packs that hold like half his total charge?"

Siphon blinks at me, then at Robin. "Ha ha, you wasted a grenade!"

"Dammit," Robin grumbles.

Raven gives us all a look. "Are we going in or not?"

We get a couple of steps into the highly populated room, and I notice three things: one, all of the enemies in the room are standing in a neat line in the back of the room; two, The Riddler and Slade are both standing side by side in front of the large machine that I can only assume is the bomb.

The third, is Five people strung up above a large pit: Beast Boy, Starfire, Jinx, Alicia, and Gothica.

The Riddler comes down from his stage, and says in a deep, booming voice, says, "Welcome, Titans. I want to play a game."


	20. Final Battle Part 2

Author's Note: This is THE last chapter. And you may not like how it ends, but I hope you liked this story enough to keep going into the next book.

Chapter 20

"Welcome, Titans. I want to play a game."

I stare up at the sight before me, and a rage unlike anything I have ever felt builds up inside. Not only does he have the girl I love, he has the girl I used to love, and the other girl that loves me. He also has one of my new best friends, who is dating one of my other friends, and my 'boss's' girlfriend. He's gone _waaayy_ to far. "I should warn you right now, Riddler. You are treading on very, very thin ice. And you do NOT want to take another step. Now back down, take the girls and BB down, and let us go. This will not end well for you."

Slade takes a step forward. "Unfortunately for you, Jack Rapid, The Riddler is not in a position to make that decision." He waves a small control back and forth, and points at the Riddler, who turns around, taking off his hat to reveal a large, metal device on the back of his neck with that despicable S on it. "I've decided to take matters into my own hands. The Riddler was more than eager to help me put my plans into motion, but I decided partway through that his personality did note... bode well for my plans. So I've decided to make some... modifications to our agreement. Now he's just as loyal as Terra had been. At least, for the most part."

I hear some snarls from my group, and a large explosion takes out the wall opposite our entrance, and the rest of our team pops in, Pantha at the lead. I see Terra poke her head out of the crowd, and glare at Slade.

"So, you can't even keep a business partner in line without some of your tech?" I sneer at him. I didn't know I could sneer. "Looks like, even if you do manage to gain the control you want, nobody will listen to you without the right motivation."

"That doesn't concern me. I know my reign will not last. What I need is someone to keep that reign immortal."

"Yeah, yeah, your little apprentice search. Big deal, Donald Trump. That hasn't worked once for you, what makes you think it would work now."

"Oh, I don't need an apprentice now. I need a slave. Someone who doesn't have a choice, free will. Someone with power that I can tap into myself. I need a totally loyal servant. Think of it as a pre-made robot, with more power than I could ever dream of simulating. And all it needed, was a little scientific edge. It was the Riddler's original plan actually, but I happened to have just the technology to make the necessary adjustments. Now, we understand each other perfectly. Isn't that right?"

The Riddler bows low, and smiles. "Absolutely. My flamboyant personality seemed to be a bit much for the master, but thanks to the necessary adjustments, I've toned down quite nicely. Didn't you think it was a little strange that it had taken me so long to put everything together. I used to be a man of action! Now, I'm a much more careful individual, planning every little detail excruciatingly."

I take a glance at my time display, and notice that it's only three minutes to midnight. "I assume, Slade, that this device is on a base timer, with backup remote detonators. Let me guess, you want us to trade someone for each Titan you have hanging, so you can implant some sort of mind control in each of us?"

"Your assumptions are well founded, and mostly incorrect. I have no presumptions of using any of you Titans as my slaves. And these..." he motions to the Titans hanging from the ceiling, "guests are merely insurance. If anyone were to attempt to disarm or manipulate the device, each of them would be killed neigh instantaneously. Now just keep still, while we wait for this marvelous device to activate."

"So, why stand at Ground Zero, when it'll just take it with you?"

"Who says this is ground zero? I have no intention of setting myself in the blast zone. This device has the ability to trigger it's explosion anywhere in the world, and I'm not about to tell you where."

I freeze in place, not wanting to antagonize him into setting it off early. I hear a slight, almost indistinct voice in my ear: "The Metacademy military base." I flinch heavily, both from the voice and the knowledge it imparted. Slade was threatening, no, promising to destroy hundreds of hopeful teenagers who ere only trying to earn a place in the world that had shunned them aside. I wasn't about to let them do that. But if I disappeared, he'd trigger it automatically, and kill my teammates.

Slowly, a plan hatches in my brain. I figure that if anything happens to Slade, Riddler would trigger the device for him. I have a good shot at taking them both out, but only one.

Slade took a moment to revel in what I could only assume was a mass look of terror on my team, with them not knowing where he would strike, or how to do anything in the current situation.

I take a second to click some of the buttons on my wrist, clicking into view FreeBoard's comm system. "Listen, Freebie, you're going to have almost exactly sixty seconds to disable that thing. The Riddler and Slade are about to disappear. Don't argue, and don't comment. Just get ready to run for the control panel." A minute thirty left.. I had to time this perfectly. "You already know where it is."

Slade continues on his monologue, and stands almost directly behind The Riddler. Just a little more. "You know, Jack Rapid, it amuses me that you made it this far, with all of the powers that suit gives you, and to have absolutely nothing that you can do about it." Just a step... _right there!_

"Aww, how cute, he thinks he's winning," I quip, and use my accelerated teleportation to beeline for Riddler, grabbing him on the way to Slade, and snagging the mastermind with my free hand. Almost immediately after, I teleport into the center of the base, using my burst ability to send them both flying.

Slade stands up almost instantly, but one look at the Riddler, and it becomes apparent that he's not getting up any time soon. The device on his neck has been thrashed by the shockwave, and he's out cold. I turn to face Slade. "Let's try this again. You're out of range for your remote detonators to trigger your device, and FreeBoard already knows to disable the device manually. You want to rethink your strategy?"

He growls at me, and roars a battle cry as he lunges at me. I pop behind him, giving me plenty of distance between us. I use the time it takes for him to recover to activate my flicker ability, and by the time he's gotten halfway to me, I'm at speed and a half, and use another accelerator burst to charge for him, using by burst effect to create a shockwave bull rush that sends him flying.

"You don't have a chance, Slade. Your device has been deactivated, you have no way home, and by now, my teammates are free, ready to take on the rest of your goons. FreeBoard has probably told them the majority of my counterplan, and taken necessary action."

"You're starting to sound like me, boy. So certain, so confident. With the foresight and intelligence it would have taken to get you this far, I would place you as an ideal servant." He takes out a small gun, and points it at me. "And that's just what I'm going to do. I'd broken into Star Labs, and taken the schematics for your suit. There's a record for everything, boy. And this little trinket has been specifically configured for your suit. My device WILL activate. And you will have no choice but to sit back and watch. But I can prevent that activation. All you have to do is hold still while I take one clean shot. You won't even feel a thing. Ever. Again," he adds, leveling the gun with my head.

Just then, a small, crackling noise makes itself heard mere meters away from me, and both Slade and I turn to witness the slow progression of the Negative Energy bomb's detonation. My blood curdles in my veins at the site of the slowly growing sphere.

A deep, primal roar escapes me as I charge teleport straight for the blast zone. I hear Slade scream a defiant "NO!" behind me, and a slight piercing sensation strikes my neck, and my mind immediately starts to fade. I fight the sensation defiantly, and focus all of my power into the field of energy before me, and feel my awareness expand. I push it farther, as fast as I can go, and feel it expand past the edge of the detonation. Finally having it under my control, and continuing to fight the numbing sensation rapidly coursing my veins, I trigger my adrenaline feed, and my body soars to life against the drug, or virus, or whatever it is Slade has struck me with. I can't think of anywhere to take all of this energy, which is slowly overtaking my area of effect, so I look straight up, and see an opening in the clouds.

I take my chances and take the field, Slade's device, and myself into the stratosphere. The strain is unbearable as my suit rages against my body, forcing my abilities into overdrive. I see myself surrounded by clouds, and then noth-.

(Jinx)

The first thing the enchantress became aware of was that she was in Ref-Jack Rapid's room. She still had to correct herself on the name. She looked around, but didn't see her boyfriend anywhere. Se assumed he'd gone to breakfast. She dressed herself, noticing that she was stark naked. She didn't remember taking her clothes off before going to bed. As a matter of fact, she didn't remember anything since starting the mission. She dressed herself, and decided to follow her beau to breakfast, asking him how she got home, and what happened. She noticed on her way to breakfast that it was despairingly quiet, even for eleven in the morning.

As soon as the door to the common room opens, she notices immediately that something's wrong. The normal Titans, plus the Young Guardians, are sitting around the couch, with Robin leading a discussion. The entire room goes dead quiet as soon as they see her enter. She looks around at a room full of sorrowful and concerned faces, most of which won't even look her in the eye.

"What's going on? Why's everyone look like the world's about to end? Did we fail the mission last night?"

No one speaks for awhile. Some murmurs, a little rustling, but nothing she can understand. Finally, Robin puts a hand on her shoulder, and motions her to sit down. "Look, Jinx, there's a lot you need to know, but the first thing is that you've been unconscious for three days. We did succeed in the mission, but not the way we'd hoped."

"What does that mean? What's going on?"

Raven was next to speak. "I read Slade's mind while he was off on his monologue. He had specified the device to target Jack Rapid's old military base-"

"Where's Jack, anyway?"

"-and told Rapid telepathically what their plan was. It took a moment for him to put his plan together, but he acted fast enough. He teleported Riddler and Slade to the base itself, and had knocked Riddler out on arrival. From what we can determine, he fought Slade for a few seconds before the device went off-"

"Why didn't you disable it?! You let if go off? How is that a success?!" Turmoil roared through her body as the thought of her boyfriend anywhere near the blast zone went off.

FreeBoard answered for her. "I tried, but I didn't have enough time to disable it. It didn't matter, though, Rapid took care of the explosion. He somehow figured out how to create a field with his teleportation ability, and captured the blast in it before it could grow too large. He had teleported the explosion into the atmosphere, and the blast couldn't even reach the ground. FreeBoard was able to disable the weapon and turn the detonation off before anyone wandered into it's radius."

"That doesn't answer my question?! Where's Rapid?!"

"We looked everywhere. I couldn't detect his vital system anywhere in the area."

Raven chided in. "And I couldn't detect his lifesigns, or his conscious or unconscious mind."

"S-so what are you telling me?" Tears brewed in her eyes. She didn't want to hear it, but she could imagine what they were about to say.

Robin knelt down in front of her, and took her hand in his. "We couldn't find anything. FreeBoard theorizes that the effort to teleport that much energy, and with the mental stress he was under-"

"Mental stress? What are you talking about?"

He held up a small capsule with a smaller needle in it. "We recovered this from Slade after he was taken into custody. It's a mind control device designed specifically to hack into Rapid's suit, then his mind, rewriting his brain entirely. FreeBoard also had him on monitor while he was wearing the suit, and discovered that his adrenaline feed was activated right before he made his final teleport. His brainwave patterns were off the scale, and the amount of energy he had built up to make the jump was pushing his vitals into the red zones. Jinx, we had to pronounce Jack Rapid, also known as Jhonas Jackston Monroe, dead as of 6:00 pm yesterday evening.

She had never cried so hard in her life.

(Robin)

He had always thought of Reflex as a good fighter, an okay teammate, but an annoying person. He had never gotten the chance to know Jack Rapid. But from everything he heard, after the events of their latest mission, he had nothing for respect for someone he was proud to call a Titan.

The funeral arrangements took weeks. Contacting his family, all of the Titans that had worked with him, his military comrades, and the entirety of the Young Guardians, took some time. They had all said that they'd come, and he didn't doubt any of them. It took even longer to figure out the best way to send him off. Eventually, Siphon had told him that Jhonas had always wanted to have his corpse blown up. He thought it was more than appropriate, but they didn't have a corpse to detonate. SO they settled on the next best thing: the largest fireworks display in the history of the Titans, right where he'd last been.

The field on the day of Jack's/Reflex's/Jhonas's funeral was full of people. Military ranks filed on one side, giving their 21 gun salute. The Titans lined up on another side, and the Young Guardians opposite them. His family and friends took the final side, making a perfect square around the centerpiece, which they had placed a large stone tablet in the ground, with all of his name, and his date of birth and death carved into the stonework. They had set up fireworks of various sizes all around the marker.

Many people gave speeches commending his personality, and his character as a hero.

Tears were shed.

The fireworks display was beautiful.

And in the minds of everyone who had attended, it wasn't worth the man they paid tribute to.

(Raven)

It had been a month since Slade and the Riddler had been locked up in Arkham. Jhonas was dead, Jinx had disappeared entirely, and the Young Guardians were just starting to get their bearings and make their mark. Led by Siphon and FreeBoard, the new hero's unit had already started a record of arrests and successful missions. The list wasn't long.

The empath and her changeling boyfriend had made piece with the death of the young hero, or so they told themselves. No one really makes piece with death, it is an inevitability that no mortal soul wishes to admit to. The Titans all had their ways of coping. Raven spent much time in her mindscape, Nevermore, discussing with her emotions the true impact the Titan's life had on her mind. It wasn't going well. She had talked with Beast Boy in great length about this, and had found him very receptive to her troubles.

They had been going strong for a month, and things were looking good. They had Jhonas to thank for that.

(Cyborg)

The steel Titan had lost many people in his life, some had hurt worse when they left, some less. But they all hurt just the same. He spent most of his time working on missions, or building new devices. He didn't really have much to do otherwise. No one was in the mood for his fabulous meals, and Beast Boy had lost most of his sense of humor lately.

He settled by teaching Starfire how to play video games.

(Beast Boy)

The green teen really had no words for what he felt, other than true sadness and loneliness. The teleporter had become almost as good a friend as Cyborg or Raven, playing along on his jokes, and playing video games with him. Raven had confided in the changeling all of her emotions, and he felt it necessary to do the same.

It had taken awhile, he wasn't very good with words when it came to how he felt, but she listened all the same. He had Jhonas to thank for her, and he would never forget him. Beast Boy loved his girlfriend, and would do anything for her. Right now, though, all she wanted was a massage.

(Starfire)

The young Tamaranian had always considered Reflex, then Jack Rapid, to be a good friend and loyal fighter. He spoke harsh words at times, but he always fought for the side of good, and made a fine warrior. Without any other Tamaranians who knew the customs, she had honored the standard Terran customs in burial. She had created her own warrior's shrine for Jack Rapid, with the other's help, in the room Jhonas had slept in.

The weeks had been difficult for her, watching the others cope with his death, which had taken an emotional toll on her.

The only consolidation any of them had received was that when Robin yelled out "Titan's Go!" at the start of every mission, they knew that life would continue, with or without Jhonas Monroe. And they were going to be ready for it.

(THE END)


	21. Epilogue And Author's Note

Epilogue

A lone figure stood out over the city, his tall, athletic frame silhouetted against the setting sun. It had been a year since he'd seen this city, and he took a moment to revel in it's glory. He climbed down from the roof, and took a few hours strolling amongst the pedestrians. He received a few strange glances for his appearance, his stark white hair and red eyes drastically accentuated by his black suit. He took notice of many of the smaller details that had changed. The Pizza Parlour had added another story, they must be doing well. Star Labs had built a branch here in Jump, focusing on medical supplies, and equipment for the Titans. He took a moment to think about the ragtag group of heroes, who had done so much for the city.

They had fought gallantly against many villains, and he respected them for it. Many criminals were placed behind bars due to their valiant efforts, and they were to be commended. At least, they used to be.

He felt a slight tinge of anger build in the back of his mind, along with the rest of the chaos that ensnared his psyche. He was insane, there was no denying that. But he did not suffer from his insanity. He enjoyed it in every sense of the word. It left him free of morals and the complications of emotions, thus, his rage was quieted quickly.

Continuing his stroll through the ever-darkening cityscape, he took note of smaller stores that had been displaced, or moved, or grown in prosperity. He enjoyed the sights and sound of the city. The chaos and cacophony of senses and stimuli reminded him much of himself lately. He remembered everything about himself, of course. Amnesia did not plague him, nor did schizophrenia. He was merely psychotic, as some would call it. He considered it a sense of freedom. He needed not worry what other people thought, regardless of his actions or how he hurt them.

He took pause at the sight of a pretty young girl with her brown hair tied into a ponytail, closing shop at a nearby flower store. Her enjoyable appearance sent a torrent of malicious ideas pouring through what little mind he had. He was not unintelligent, no. In fact, many had commended him for his foresight and intelligence, in a previous life. It was simply that his mind was so fragmented and almost impossible to stabilize that he rarely had access to more than a fraction of it at any given time.

He considered approaching the pretty young girl, luring her someplace quiet with a few well placed words and a dinner invitation, then spending the rest of the evening experimenting in the thresholds of the human body, particularly it's capacity for pain. He had no scientific urges, and no inclination to study, but the thought of testing these ideas sounded almost too good to pass up.

At least, they did, until he heard a distinct explosion tear asunder a large section of street behind him. He turned quietly to witness none other than the Titans themselves chasing a particularly invigorated Johnny Rancid through the streets. Thus, a new idea was born.

He would make himself known to the Titans. Toy with them, play whatever games came to mind, fulfilling any curiosities his psyche could manifest. He would remind them of the pain they had caused him. The loneliness, the despair. The months without companionship or hope, when his mind first shattered a year ago in an explosion of darkness and space.

He would remind the Titans exactly who Jack Rapid was. _Was,_ he thought, being the keyword, for that man had died. He had sacrificed himself for the greater good, and they had barely searched him out. Thus, this man had been born.

It was time for Demonstreak to say hello.

Final Author's note: FINALLY! I did it! I completed a freaking story!

Now, let me answer a few questions for you, that you may not be too certain about.

One, yes, Demonstreak is Reflex/Jack Rapid/Jhonas Monroe.

Two, he is going to be the main villain in the next book, so look forward to it.

Three, he is going to be SO MUCH FUN TO WRITE!

I have a few things to st up for the next book, but it will start very soon. And it will be amazing. If there are any cultural or media references throughout this story that you did not understand, feel free to ask me, I'll tell you exactly where I got it. Any other questions will be handled when I get them.

Also, I'm putting up another document that's about three chapters long, that is comprised of alternate versions to chapters in this story. More detail in the opening note of that little aside.

THANKS FOR READING!


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